Military strikes on water facilities in Iran may constitute a war crime, experts say

A large plume of smoke rises over Tehran after explosions were reported in the city during the night on 28 March 2026. Photograph: Contributor/Getty Images View image in fullscreen A large plume of smoke rises over Tehran after explosions were reported in the city during the night on 28 March 2026. Photograph: Contributor/Getty Images Military strikes on water facilities in Iran may constitute a war crime, experts say Strikes on Bemani damaged key water reservoir for 20,000 people living in area amid a historic drought in the country Middle East crisis – live updates Military strikes that damaged two water storage facilities in southern Iran may constitute a war crime, military and legal experts say, after reviewing media reports and visual evidence of a 10 June strike on Bemani, a small district about 2 miles from the strait of Hormuz. It’s unclear if the strikes deliberately targeted the district’s water tanks, or if they unintentionally destroyed a key reservoir for about 20,000 people living nearby. But if the tanks were the target, then the legal question becomes critical, Brian Finucane, a former state department lawyer, said. “It’s either a military objective or it’s a civilian object: attacking one is lawful, attacking the other is a war crime,” Finucane said. Iran’s state broadcaster said Wednesday’s strikes were carried out by the US military , though the Guardian could not verify if that was the case. Is the Iran ceasefire over? What the latest US attacks tell us Read more “We are aware of reports and are looking into it,” Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for US Central Command (Centcom), the operating authority for US military operations in the Middle East, said in a statement. The strikes on Bemani may be part of an escalating effort to force Iran to accept a deal on US terms, breaching the terms of a tenuous ceasefire agreement that has been in place since April and compounding US threats to capture Iranian infrastructure and take control of its oil industry. Donald Trump has warned that Iran will “pay the price” for stalling negotiations and boasted Wednesday that “we hit them hard yesterday and we’re going to hit them hard again today.” Conflicting reports emerged Thursday about whether the US, Iran and several Gulf countries had reached a deal to end the conflict. Trump said he was calling off planned strikes in advance of what he characterized was a deal agreed to in principle on most major points. Trump has claimed dozens of times to be close to an agreement to end the war, and that the Iranian leadership had agreed to a deal when in fact they had not. The destruction of Bemani’s water tanks occurred shortly after Centcom announced strikes on “Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz” by US air force and navy fighter jets in a post on X. The White House declined to comment on the strikes on Bemani and referred all questions about the operation to Centcom. The attack on Iran