The United Nations has called for an urgent investigation into a US airstrike on a primary school in Minab, southern Iran, which killed over 163 girls on March 3

The incident took place at Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab, Hormozgan province, near an IRGC base, during school hours on 28 February 2026, The Caspian Post reports, citing foreign media.

Pentagon and US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokespeople have said they are “aware of reports” of the strike and “investigating claims of civilian casualties,” but have not confirmed or denied US involvement or acknowledged any school hit.

UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani described the attack, which took place on March 1, as "absolutely horrific," noting that children were killed at the beginning of the school day.

"If there is any image that captures the essence of the destruction, despair and senselessness and cruelty of this conflict, those are the images," Shamdasani said, referring to bloodstained backpacks recovered from the scene.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk had been "deeply shocked" by the impact of the hostilities on civilians and civilian infrastructure, Shamdasani added, calling for a "prompt, impartial and thorough investigation" into the circumstances of the Minab attack.

"The onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it. We call on them to make public the findings and to ensure accountability and redress for the victims," she said.

Shamdasani stressed that if attacks are found to have been directed against civilians or civilian objects, or to have been indiscriminate, they constitute "serious violations of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes."

The UN's intervention came as Iranian authorities reported at least 201 people killed and 747 injured in air strikes across the country since March 1, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS).

“We would not deliberately target a school,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters when pressed, referring further questions to the Pentagon. UNESCO and UN human rights monitors condemned the deaths as a potential war crime and demanded an independent probe, noting the lack of clarity over responsibility amid the widening US-Iran conflict.

State media broadcast images of funerals in Minab, where black-clad families buried victims under chants of “Death to America,” with Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani accusing Washington of “barbarism against innocents” to break Iranian resolve.

Iranian officials, state media and Foreign Ministry spokespeople insist the strike was deliberate or indiscriminate by US/Israeli forces, citing the school’s location near military sites and the high child death toll.

The school attack has inflamed anti-US protests across Iran and drawn sharp rebukes from Russia, China and several Arab states, even as Gulf partners quietly back the broader campaign against Tehran’s regional proxies.

Some 45 girls who survived the direct US attack are in hospital, according to reports from Hormozgan, while several are reportedly still in critical condition after families scrambled to pull them out of the rubble.