US-Israeli attacks on Iran civilians amount to ‘genocide’: Baghaei

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman says the US-Israeli attacks on civilian structures, including schools and sports complexes, in Iran that resulted in the killing of children and teenagers amount to “genocide.”

Esmaeil Baghaei made the remarks in reaction to US media reports that confirmed the Pentagon’s use of a newly–developed untested ballistic missile, known as the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), in its attack on Lamerd Sports Hall in Fars province, which claimed the lives of 21 teenage athletes.

“This is not an isolated act of cruelty—it is part of a systematic and brutal pattern of illegal warfare against Iran,” Baghaei said in a post on X on Wednesday.

Noting that “aggressors have deliberately targeted over 600 schools and educational centres, including the Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab and the Lamerd Sports Hall” in the past 33 days, the spokesman said, “the term ‘war crime’ falls far short of adequately describing these atrocities.”

“Given the explicit rhetoric of hostility toward Iranians (as a nation) expressed by US/Israeli officials, these crimes amount to genocide.

”The attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan left more than 170 schoolchildren and staff killed on February 28, the first day of the ongoing US-Israeli aggression on Iran.

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