Iran says a US missile strike sent shrapnel into a home hosting a wedding in Hormozgan province, killing 5, including a child, and wounding more than 50 people
Iran accused the United States of striking a wedding gathering in the country’s south, killing five people, including a child, and injuring dozens more in an attack on a residential area near the Strait of Hormuz in Kuhestak, in Sirik county of Hormozgan province, on Tuesday night.
The Red Crescent said shrapnel from a US missile struck the residential property, killing five people and injuring more than 50. Six-year-old Amir Mohammad Karimi was among those killed, it said, adding that those wounded had been transferred to hospital in the nearby city of Minab.
Earlier, Reza Shahidiyan, the governor of Sirik county, told the *IRIB *state broadcaster that 63 people had been injured, including 50 women and children. Other Iranian reporting has cited as many as 68 wounded.
Videos circulated by Iranian rescue workers showed debris scattered across the site and extensive damage to several buildings, including blown-out walls and windows. Another video posted by the Red Crescent showed a large whole on the roof of a residential building, supposedly from the site of the impact.
Kuhestak lies in Sirik county, on Iran’s southern coast along the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global seaborne oil trade passes. The attack came during a large new wave of US strikes across Iran, following more than a month without a direct exchange of fire between Washington and Tehran.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces had launched strikes against targets linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, citing what it called recent attempted attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and on US personnel in the region.
But Washington has not publicly identified the precise target near the wedding site, disclosed the weapon used, or explained how a missile strike came to send lethal shrapnel into a home packed with civilians celebrating a wedding. Earlier reports suggested a telecommunications tower in the Kuhestak area may have been among the targets.
The US did not deny carrying out strikes in the area. Asked about reports of civilian casualties, CENTCOM spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins said: "We’re aware of the reports, which originated from Iranian state media," claiming that "The US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC."
The statement does not address whether the strike hit a civilian residence, whether US planners knew a wedding was under way, whether the house was within the expected blast radius of an intended target, or whether CENTCOM is investigating the deaths and injuries reported by emergency workers and local officials.
The US assertion that it does not target civilians sits uneasily alongside mounting reports of civilian harm from its campaign in Iran. On 28 February, a strike on a girls’ school in Minab, also in Hormozgan province, killed more than 150 people, most of them children, according to Iranian authorities and rights groups.
Washington has yet to publicly accept responsibility or release a final account of that attack. However, a preliminary US military assessment concluded that US forces were likely responsible and that the school was not the intended target. The reported explanation was that outdated intelligence had wrongly classified the site, or the surrounding area, as associated with an Iranian military installation.
Iranian officials condemned the Sirik attack as an assault on civilians and said the country would respond.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran would respond "with firmness", while Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s top negotiator and parliamentary speaker, described the United States as the "Great Satan" and linked the wedding deaths to what he called a broader pattern of US attacks on civilians.
The head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society sent a letter to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Wednesday regarding the wedding attack, assuring prosecutors that the organisation was documenting the effects of the attack in order to "collect and record (them) for follow-up through legal and international channels," calling for an independent investigation into Tuesday's deadly incident.
Iranian officials also said electricity and telephone services had been disrupted in the area, amid reports that US strikes had targeted telecommunications infrastructure in Hormozgan province. Restoration work was under way, according to Iran’s health ministry.
The strike was followed by Iranian missile and drone attacks directed towards US-linked targets and allies across the region, including Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. The exchange marked one of the sharpest escalations in weeks in the six-month conflict.
