Iranian authorities announced that reservoirs were destroyed by U.S. strikes on Iran, cutting off drinking water for 20,000 people. The United States maintains the attack was in self-defense in response to the downing of an Apache helicopter, but suspicions are being raised that it was a deliberate strike targeting civilian infrastructure.

On the 10th (local time), the Iranian news agency WANA reported that two reservoirs measuring 2500㎥ in the Bamani area of Hormozgan Province were destroyed by a U.S. military attack the previous day. The reservoirs had supplied drinking water to residents of Kuhestak City and ten nearby villages.

The Hormozgan Province Water and Wastewater Company estimated the damage to water supply infrastructure from the attack at about 1.4 trillion rials (roughly 1.5 billion won). Because the region has limited groundwater reserves, no alternative water source has been secured, worsening the impact.

Iranian media reported that the extreme heat, currently reaching about 45~50 degrees, is further exacerbating the hardship for residents. Abdolhamid Hamzepour, head of the Hormozgan Province Water and Wastewater Company, stated, “More than 20,000 local residents have been unable to access safe drinking water due to this attack amid the harshest climate conditions and extreme heat.” Local authorities have taken emergency measures, mobilizing water trucks and temporary pump systems.

Observers say the strike has further worsened the situation in Iran, which had already been suffering from severe water shortages. Iran had long been classified as a country with chronic water scarcity due to decreased precipitation from climate change and poor water resource management by the authorities, even before the war. After five consecutive years of drought through last year, the water storage level at the Amir Kabir Dam in Tehran fell to around 8% at the end of last year.

Iran maintains that the U.S. strike on the reservoirs was a deliberate ‘war crime’. The nonbinding international law principles adopted in 2004, the ‘Berlin Rules on Water Resources’, prohibit attacks on water resource facilities ‘when they cause excessive suffering to civilians’. Al Jazeera reported that this was “the first attack on civilian infrastructure reported in Iran in weeks,” adding that “it occurred at a time when Iran is facing severe water shortages.”

U.S. Minister of National Defense Pete Hegseth dismissed a question that asked ‘whether a U.S. military strike targeting civilian infrastructure constitutes a war crime’, saying, “That is the kind of deceptive question we always hear from reporters.” He added, “It is an attempt to undermine the motives of the U.S. military,” and, “We will powerfully strike targets that degrade the capabilities of Iran, on terms set by our forces.”

This is not the first time the United States has faced allegations of war crimes. On the first day of the U.S.-Iran war, February 28, a girls elementary school in Minab, Iran was bombed, killing at least 175 people, including students and staff. In March, a seawater desalination facility on Qeshm Island, Iran was attacked, cutting off water supplies to 30 villages. The United States denied carrying out the attacks.