The U.N. human rights office urged the “forces” behind an attack on a girls’ school in Iran to investigate and share insights into the “horrific” incident, without naming them.
“The High Commissioner (Volker Turk) calls for a prompt, impartial and thorough investigation into the circumstances of the attack. The onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it,” U.N. human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a Geneva press briefing, describing the incident as “horrific”.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said U.S. forces “would not deliberately target a school”, after Iranian state media reported over 160 were killed on the first day of the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.
Meanwhile, Iran held a mass funeral ceremony for 165 schoolgirls and staff killed on Saturday in what Iran has described as a United States-Israeli attack on a girls’ school in the southern city of Minab.
The Israeli military has claimed it was not aware of any Israeli or US attacks in that area. Throughout its genocidal war on Gaza, Israel has denied multiple deadly attacks on Palestinian civilians, only to later backtrack when irrefutable evidence emerged, then terming such attacks as “accidental”.
The attack took place on Saturday after the US and Israel announced joint strikes on Iran, marking the deadliest incident in the war against Tehran so far, targeting civilians.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday accused the US and Israel of killing the schoolgirls.
“These are graves being dug for more than 160 innocent young girls who were killed in the US-Israeli bombing of a primary school. Their bodies were torn to shreds,” Araghchi wrote on X, alongside an image of newly dug graves.
“This is how ‘rescue’ promised by Mr Trump looks in reality. From Gaza to Minab, innocents murdered in cold blood.”
Authorities in Tehran have called for international action and solidarity after several hospitals and schools were impacted by United States and Israeli air strikes on the country as Iran continues to fire missiles and drones across the region.
--Agencies
