Analyst Challenges IIFFM's 156-Death Minab War-Crime Finding as Report Faults 2 US Iran Strikes
Updated
Updated · Opinio Juris · Sep 17
Analyst Challenges IIFFM's 156-Death Minab War-Crime Finding as Report Faults 2 US Iran Strikes
3 articles · Updated · Opinio Juris · Sep 17
Summary
A legal analyst said the IIFFM’s new report does not convincingly show the 28 February US strike on Minab’s Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School was a war crime, even though it killed at least 156 civilians.
The critique accepts the report’s finding that the school strike violated international humanitarian law, but argues the evidence points to negligence and failure of precautions—not the recklessness needed for individual criminal liability under customary law.
Outdated targeting data, failure to verify the target, and public signs that the building was a school may support state responsibility, the analyst said, but the report does not identify specific US personnel or show any actually knew the target might be civilian.
The analyst found the IIFFM’s case stronger on the separate Lamerd sports-centre strike, where a pellet-dispersing PrSM attack that killed at least 22 civilians more closely fits an indiscriminate-attack war-crime theory.
The IIFFM had already said the US ignored its information requests and has not publicly disclosed its own investigation, leaving a key evidentiary gap as scrutiny of the February Iran strikes continues.