The UN human rights office has urged what it called the forces behind a deadly attack on a girls’ school in Iran to investigate and share insights into the incident, without saying who it believed was responsible, Reuters reports.

“The High Commissioner (Volker Turk) calls for a prompt, impartial and thorough investigation into the circumstances of the attack. The onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it,” UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a Geneva press briefing.

“This is absolutely horrific,” Shamdasani said, adding that images circulating on social media captured “the essence of the destruction, despair and senselessness and cruelty of this conflict”.

Turk also urged all parties to exercise restraint and to return to the negotiating table, she said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday that US forces “would not deliberately target a school”. Israel has said it is investigating the incident.