A United Nations expert committee has expressed deep concern over the deaths of children in a bombing at a girls’ school in southern Iran. The attack took place on Saturday at Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab, during the first day of US and Israeli strikes. According to UN experts, at least 160 children were killed in the incident.

In a statement, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said it was alarmed by reports of attacks on civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, which have injured and traumatized children and claimed many young lives. The committee, composed of 18 independent experts, monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which protects children’s right to education and safety from violence.

Earlier, Iran’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, raised the issue in a letter to UN human rights chief Volker Türk on March 1, describing the attack as “unjustified” and “criminal.”