Hegseth's indifference to civilian lives enabled systematic war crimes in Iran: Pentagon report

A damning internal Pentagon inspector general report has laid bare the Trump administration’s criminal indifference to civilian lives in its illegal war of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran, confirming what Tehran has repeatedly exposed. 

The systematic war crimes against Iran were enabled by the deliberate dismantling of civilian protection mechanisms under War Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to the report. 

Released on May 15, the classified Department of War document reveals that not a single one of the 11 core objectives of the 2022 Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMR-AP) was fully implemented by the end of fiscal year 2025, The Intercept reported. All 133 required actions remain incomplete.

Funding for vital tools, including the civilian harm tracking database, was slashed. Steering committee meetings were scrapped. Experienced staff were purged or reassigned, leaving the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence a “shell on paper with no budget, no mandate or real mission, no authority,” according to the report itself.

This was no bureaucratic oversight but a conscious policy choice by the Hegseth-led Pentagon to prioritize raw lethality over international law and human life. The timing of the report is damning. The report coincides with US Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper brazenly telling senators he could not “corroborate” widespread strikes on Iranian schools and hospitals after more than 13,600 US-led airstrikes on sovereign Iranian territory.

Cooper’s excuse? The very database meant to verify such atrocities had been defunded.

Iranian officials and independent monitors have documented the horrific toll. Iranian health and emergency authorities report that the US-Israeli aggression has martyred thousands of civilians, including at least 258 women and 221 minors.

The criminal strike on Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab alone claimed 168 schoolgirls.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society reports over 115,000–140,000 civilian homes, businesses, and units damaged or destroyed, including 763 schools and hundreds of educational facilities.

More than 334 medical sites were targeted, with at least 50 hospitals damaged, killing 24-26 health workers and injuring over 118. The Iranian Red Crescent itself lost several centers in the onslaught.

Former Pentagon civilian harm assessment chief Wes Bryant slammed the inspector general’s findings as a “whitewash,” noting that 90 percent of dedicated billets were eliminated and the Center of Excellence has been locked out of oversight since March 2025.

The massacre is not limited to Iran. During Trump’s second term, US forces have killed over 2,000 civilians worldwide. In Yemen’s Operation Rough Rider alone, at least 224 civilians died in spring 2025 strikes, nearly doubling previous tolls in just weeks. Similar disregard has been reported in Venezuela, Somalia, Syria and beyond.

Iran submits 35 war crimes dossiers against US, Israel to international bodies

The head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society says Tehran has sent 35 documents proving war crimes committed by the US and Israel to international organizations.

Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) warned that Hegseth’s cuts have created “a crisis of the Trump Administration’s own making,” leaving civilians and even US troops at greater risk while handing “propaganda wins for our adversaries.”

Madison Hunke of the Center for Civilians in Conflict stressed that the Pentagon is violating both law and its own policies forged from the bloody lessons of Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.

For Iran, the report is vindication. Despite the barbarity of the US and Israel, Iran’s resistance and commitment to international law stand in stark contrast to Washington’s lawlessness. As the aggressors scramble to cover their tracks, the blood of Iranian martyrs, such as children, doctors, and teachers, demands justice.

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