Minab school strike: what happened and why it may face a war-crimes probe

What happened at the Minab school

The cited sources consistently describe the site as a primary or elementary school in Minab, southern Iran ^[7][12][13]. Reporting on the European Parliament intervention described it as a girls’ elementary school ^[2]. Human Rights Watch’s March briefing called the February 28 attack an unlawful attack that reportedly killed scores of civilians, including schoolchildren ^[12].

Those accounts agree on the central fact: a school was struck and children were among the dead. What remains unsettled in the public record is the final casualty count, the full chain of responsibility, and the legal classification of the attack ^[7][12][13].

Why the death toll is reported differently

Amnesty International’s published figure was 156 people killed, including 120 children ^[13]. Human Rights Watch’s later analysis cited at least 175 deaths, including many children ^[7]. Because those figures differ, the most careful shorthand is that the strike killed more than 150 people, unless citing one organization’s specific count ^[7][13].

The difference in figures does not change the legal significance of the incident. Both rights groups describe mass civilian casualties at a school and call for public accountability over the attack ^[12][13].

Who may be responsible

Attribution is one of the main unresolved issues. Human Rights Watch reported that, despite President Trump’s immediate denial of responsibility, an initial U.S. military assessment found U.S. forces were likely behind the attack on the Minab school ^[7]. HRW also cautioned that a full investigation could take months to reach final conclusions ^[7].

Amnesty International went further in its March statement, describing the incident as a deadly and unlawful U.S. strike and saying those responsible for planning and executing it must be held accountable ^[13]. Human Rights Watch separately called on both the United States and Israel to assess their responsibility and make the findings public ^[12].

Why Milan Uhrík is calling for a war-crimes probe

European Parliament member Milan Uhrík called for an immediate and impartial investigation after a memorial gathering outside the Iranian embassy in Brussels, according to The Express Tribune’s report citing Al Jazeera and Iranian media ^[2]. Uhrík said the strike may have been deliberate and could constitute a war crime ^[2].

That is an allegation, not a court ruling. But it overlaps with the questions raised by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International: who carried out the strike, what precautions were taken, and whether the civilian harm was disproportionate or otherwise unlawful ^[12][13].

The law-of-war issue in plain English

A war-crimes inquiry would not rest only on the fact that a school was hit. Investigators would need to examine what target was selected, what commanders knew about civilian presence, what precautions were taken, and how the expected civilian harm compared with any expected military gain.

Human Rights Watch summarized the proportionality rule this way: the laws of war prohibit attacks when the anticipated harm to civilians and civilian objects is disproportionate compared with the expected military gain ^[12]. Amnesty’s investigation focused on precautions, saying the U.S. violated international humanitarian law by failing to take all feasible steps to avoid civilian harm ^[13].

That creates two overlapping paths for scrutiny. First, if the school itself was deliberately targeted as Uhrík suspects, that would be central to any war-crimes analysis ^[2]. Second, even if the intended target was something else, the attack could still be unlawful if planners failed to take feasible precautions or if the expected civilian harm was excessive compared with the expected military advantage ^[12][13].

What investigators still need to establish

A meaningful public investigation would need to answer several questions that are not resolved by the cited record:

• Which force carried out the strike, and who authorized it?
• What target was identified, and what intelligence supported that choice?
• What did planners know about the school and the likely presence of children?
• What precautions were taken to avoid or reduce civilian harm?
• How was the expected civilian harm weighed against any claimed military objective?
• Which casualty figure is verified, and how will victims be accounted for?

Human Rights Watch has called for the United States and Israel to assess their responsibility and publish the findings, while Amnesty has called for a transparent and thorough investigation whose results are made public ^[12][13].

Bottom line

The strongest supported conclusion is careful but serious: a primary school in Minab was struck on February 28, 2026, and rights groups say more than 150 people were killed, many of them children ^[7][13]. An EU lawmaker and major human-rights organizations are calling for a war-crimes investigation, but the public record cited here does not contain a final judicial finding or completed public investigation ^{[2][7][12][13]}. The legal outcome will depend on evidence about responsibility, intent, precautions and proportionality.