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Iranian mourners carried flag-draped caskets through the village of Kuhestak in Sirik County on Thursday as they laid to rest victims of a US airstrike that struck a home during a wedding celebration two days earlier, according to Reuters. A reporter from Iran’s Mehr news agency stood before one pickup truck bearing a small coffin and stated, “This is the body of Martyr Amir-Mohammad Karimi, a 4-year-old child who war martyred in an attack on the country’s south by the criminal American regime.” Mourners tossed flower petals into the air while doleful music played and soldiers stood at attention with rifles during the ceremony that unfolded along the Strait of Hormuz coast in Hormozgan province.
The strike late on Tuesday formed part of the largest US escalation in the conflict in more than a month, with Iranian officials saying a missile hit the house of a local fisherman hosting dozens of guests for his daughter’s wedding, Reuters reported. State television showed footage of damaged buildings with a hole in the roof and debris scattered across the floor, while the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted a local resident saying, “This was a wedding ceremony, but they turned people’s joy into mourning.” The Iranian Red Crescent Society documented the scene and released images of injured children receiving hospital treatment after shrapnel from the strike spread through the residential area.
Iranian officials initially placed the death toll at four, including two children aged four and 16 as well as two women, with nearly 70 others wounded, a toll that state television updated on Thursday by reporting a fifth victim, a 22-year-old woman, had died in hospital, according to multiple accounts compiled by Reuters and the BBC. The Hormozgan governor’s office identified the dead as four-year-old Amirali Karimi, 16-year-old Mohammad Mallahi, 43-year-old Kolsum Mallahi and 50-year-old Zarkhatoon Taheri, the BBC reported. A fisherman identified as Ali Mallahi, the father of the bride, told state television that all those present were civilians and expressed relief that the casualty count had not been higher.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei described the strike as a war crime and stated that it formed part of America’s desperate effort to hide its failures, the Guardian reported. The Iranian Red Crescent Society sent a letter to the International Criminal Court urging an independent investigation into the incident, citing the civilian nature of the wedding gathering and raising concerns under international humanitarian law, according to Al Jazeera. Parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf joined the condemnation by calling the US the “great Satan” for targeting families with children.
The US military said it was aware of the Iranian reports but that it “never targets civilians,” while stressing the strikes had responded to recent attempted Iranian attacks on American forces and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters and the Associated Press reported. Central Command spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins told multiple outlets that reports of the civilian casualties originated from Iranian state media. No immediate details emerged on any US investigation into the specific strike in the remote coastal area.
In retaliation overnight, Iran fired missiles and drones at a US base in Kuwait, marking a direct response to the escalated airstrikes that included the wedding site, according to Reuters. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps described the original strike as having turned a Sunni couple’s wedding into mourning by reducing a residential house to dust and blood, the Guardian reported. The exchange comes amid a six-month-old conflict that has seen repeated strikes between the two sides, with the latest round focusing heavily on targets near the Strait of Hormuz.
Footage verified by BBC analysts showed a telecommunications tower destroyed about 110 metres from the wedding house, with additional videos capturing the damaged residential structures and abandoned celebratory items such as henna-decorated shoes and floral garlands, the broadcaster reported. The Iranian Red Crescent Society had put the initial wounded count at 67, a figure that aligned with later provincial tallies reaching 68 or more, according to cross-reported data from AP and Al Jazeera. Little independent information has emerged from the area, where access remains restricted amid the ongoing hostilities.
