UN calls for investigation into deadly strike on school in Iran

Funeral prayers of girls held today

The United Nations human rights office on Tuesday urged what it described as the forces behind a deadly attack on a girls' school in Iran to investigate the incident and share their findings, without saying who it believed was responsible.

"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," UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a Geneva press briefing.

"This is absolutely horrific," Shamdasani said, adding that images circulating on social media captured "the essence of the destruction, despair and senselessness and cruelty of this conflict".

Turk also urged all parties to exercise restraint and return to the negotiating table, she said.

The school in southern Iran was hit on Saturday, the first day of US and Israeli attacks against the country. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that US forces "would not deliberately target a school". Israel has said it is investigating the incident.

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, previously raised the issue with Turk in a letter dated March 1, calling the attack "unjustifiable" and "criminal". He said the strike killed 150 students.

Turk's office does not have sufficient information to determine whether the strike constituted a war crime, Shamdasani said.

Coffin of 108 girls

Coffins of girls killed in a strike on the school in Minab were brought today for funeral prayers and burial as Iran’s judiciary said the death toll in the attack has risen to 108.

Footage from Minab in Hormozgan province showed trucks carrying the coffins into the city while grieving residents gathered in large numbers. Mourners waving flags and holding photographs later carried the coffins in a solemn procession toward the funeral site.

Funeral prayers were held with rows of coffins placed on the ground as crowds prayed before burial.

“The number of martyrs at the girls’ school in Minab has increased to 108,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website quoted the local prosecutor’s office as saying.

Iran held a mass funeral ceremony for the 165 schoolgirls and staff killed in a strike on a girls’ primary school in Minab, Hormozgan.

Iranian officials described the attack as a United States–Israeli air strike carried out during large-scale bombings across multiple provinces… pic.twitter.com/IgKJ9rhzf7

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Minab’s provincial governor, Mohammad Radmehr, confirmed to IRNA that the Shajareye Tayabeh girls’ school had been directly struck and that many students were killed. He said rescue and aid operations were launched immediately after the attack and that the security situation in the city was under control.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned the strike, saying the “barbaric act is another black page in the record of countless crimes committed by the aggressors”.

A mourner sprays flower petals on the coffins of children who were killed in a reported strike on a primary school in Iran s Hormozgan province during a funeral in Minab on March 3, 2026. PHOTO: ISNA/Reuters

The Iranian Red Crescent earlier said at least 201 people were killed and 747 injured in the broader wave of attacks.

Iran’s foreign minister vowed the “crimes against the Iranian people will not go unanswered”.

The strike came hours after the US and Israel said they had carried out coordinated military action against Iran, sharply escalating regional tensions. On Saturday morning, Israel launched what it called a “preemptive” attack against Iran under the name “Lion’s Roar”, declaring a “special and immediate” state of emergency across the country.

US President Donald Trump later said his forces launched “major combat operations” in Iran aimed at “protecting the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime”.

The attacks come as talks between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear programme had been ongoing under Oman’s mediation. A new round of talks in Geneva ended on Thursday.

The joint strikes pushed the Middle East into renewed military confrontation and further dimmed hopes for a diplomatic solution to the West’s long-standing effort to denuclearise Iran, despite Tehran’s repeated assertions that it will not pursue nuclear weapons.