GENEVA — A United Nations panel expressed profound alarm Wednesday over the bombing of Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in southern Iran’s Minab, which reportedly killed more than 160 children and marked the first day of U.S. and Israeli strikes on the country last Saturday.
The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, comprising 18 independent experts who oversee the Convention on the Rights of the Child, safeguarding education and protection from violence, issued a statement declaring itself “deeply disturbed” by the loss of young lives. “The Committee is alarmed by reports of strikes on civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, which have injured and traumatised children, and claimed many young lives,” it said, stressing that children must be shielded from the horrors of war.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted Monday that American forces “would not deliberately target a school.” Israel, meanwhile, announced it is probing the incident. The U.N. human rights office echoed calls Tuesday for those behind the “deadly attack” to conduct a thorough investigation and disclose findings, without assigning blame.
Iran’s U.N. ambassador in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, had already flagged the strike as “unjustifiable” and “criminal” in a March 1 letter to U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk.