US military opens investigation after destruction of drinking water tanks in Iran

A possible war crime in Iran? The US Central Command (Centcom) announced to CBS News that an investigation was underway after the destruction of two water reservoirs in the Bemani district (Iran), near the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian authorities accuse the American army of having deliberately targeted drinking water infrastructure, on the night of Tuesday June 9 to Wednesday June 10, as part of strikes carried out after the destruction of an Apache helicopter patrolling in the Gulf.

Tuesday evening, several explosions were reported in certain areas of Hormozogan province, notably in Kouhestak and Sirik. Shortly after midnight, a local correspondent for state media Irib reported that drinking water was cut off in the Bamani district, after the destruction of two water reservoirs.

Around 2 a.m., the general director of the water company, Abdolhamid Hamzehpour, announced that two reservoirs of 2,000 m3 and 500 m3 had been completely destroyed, even though they play a key role in supply. The town of Kohestak and around ten villages are deprived of water, in the midst of a drought and heatwave.

Half an hour later, the Revolutionary Guards carried out retaliatory strikes against the 5th Naval Fleet, in Bahrain, and the Ali al-Salem base, in Kuwait, justified according to them by the attacks at several points and the damage caused to these reservoirs as well as a telecommunications antenna in the town of Sirik.

The situation became clearer in the morning, when the Tasnim agency and other media published videos and photographs documenting the damage inflicted on this concrete structure and its mechanical installations. The authorities announce the mobilization of four 18,000 liter tank trucks to supply this population area of ​​20,000 inhabitants. However, the situation was restored twelve hours after the strikes, announced Abdolhamid Hamzehpour, thanks in particular to the creation of a new pipeline by the technical teams of the national company Abfa.

Local authorities quickly denounce “a war crime”citing articles 52 and 54 of the Geneva Conventions on civil infrastructure. “Water is the pulse of life”writes the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmaïl Baghaï, on X. “The United States is deliberately targeting the strength of the Iranian population”he accuses again, denouncing a “calculated war crime” and a flagrant violation of human rights. The following night, targets were struck again in the vicinity of Sirik.

The New York Times published a detailed analysis of the documents presented by the Iranian media, cross-referencing them with satellite images. The daily underlines that these infrastructures are located on a hill, isolated, outside any inhabited area. The roof of the small tank is completely collapsed, while that of the large tank is ripped open in its center by an impact – which is compatible with a potential targeted strike. Furthermore, the debris presented by the Iranian media corresponds to the fragments of a small precision hovering bomb, the GBU-39, according to experts at the Open Source Ammunition Portal.

Could a US strike against civilian infrastructure constitute a war crime? “This is exactly the kind of dishonest question I’m used to from the media”replied the Secretary of State for Defense, Pete Hegseth, quoted by the site The Hill. This is the first public case of an attack on a hydraulic installation in Iran. On March 7, at the height of the conflict, Iran had already claimed that American strikes had hit a desalination plant on the island of Qeshm, near the Strait of Hormuz. The next day, Bahrain reported an Iranian strike against a hydraulic installation, apparently in retaliation for the American attack on Qeshm.

This time, the American Central Command (Centcom) finally announced that an investigation was underway, in a brief press release from its spokesperson. Another investigation had already been opened after a strike against the Minab school which cost the lives of 155 people, including 122 children, on the first day of the war between Israel, the United States and Iran. Three months later, the results of the investigation have still not been published.