Jurist Rights group demands accountability for US strike on Iran school

[Dadparvar]

On Tuesday, Amnesty International called for those responsible to be held accountable for a US strike on an Iranian school that killed over 100 children.

The call for accountability followed the February strike on a school in Minab, Iran. Amnesty’s Evidence Lab conducted an investigation into the strike, analyzing over 30 satellite images and reviewing official statements, independent media reports, and witnesses statements.

The group found that the school was hit by precision guided munitions and additionally uncovered that the US may have relied on outdated intelligence to conduct the strike. This would constitute a violation of international law, specifically the duty to verify that an intended target is a military objective. While the school was initially located within a military compound, satellite images from 2016 show that the building had been physically separated by constructed walls and three gated entrances.

Erika Guervara-Rosas, Amnesty’s senior director of Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, condemned military attacks on children, saying:

This harrowing attack on a school, with classrooms full of children, is a sickening illustration of the catastrophic and entirely predictable price civilians are paying during this armed conflict. Schools must be places of safety and learning for children. Instead, this school in Minab became a site of mass killing. The US authorities could, and should, have known it was a school building. Targeting a protected civilian object, such as a school, is strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law.

The group called for US authorities to launch a public investigation, prosecute those suspected of criminal responsibility, and provide reparations for victims. Both Amnesty and Human Rights Watch called for the attack to be investigated as a war crime.

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