A US strike killed at least four people, including a child, and wounded 68 others at a wedding in Kuhestak, southern Iran, late Tuesday, Iranian authorities said. The strike came after Washington announced attacks on targets belonging to Iran's Revolutionary Guards near the Strait of Hormuz.
What happened at the Iran wedding hit by the US strike?
Footage circulating in Iran on Wednesday showed ruined decorations, abandoned shoes and rubble scattered across the wedding site in Kuhestak. Videos captured people screaming as rescuers rushed to help the wounded. A state television reporter held up a charred piece of metal he said was a fragment of "the American missile... that turned a wedding celebration into a tragedy."
One video, carried by Fars news agency, showed a man picking up a white sandal with glittering straps from the debris. "You wicked people have attacked people's homes and turned their wedding ceremony into a funeral," he said. The Iranian Red Crescent confirmed the strike hit the coastal town along the Strait of Hormuz.
What did the US say about the strike?
The United States did not specify what it had targeted in Kuhestak. In a post on X, US Central Command said it carried out strikes against Iran's Revolutionary Guards following "recent attempted attacks... against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region."
Asked about reports of civilian casualties, a CENTCOM spokesman insisted "the US military never targets civilians." Authorities in Hormozgan province said several telecommunications and internet towers were also seriously damaged in the strikes, disrupting communication networks in the area. State television showed a collapsed communications tower with twisted metal debris spread across a street in Kuhestak, which some Iranian media estimated was around 140 meters from the wedding site.
Why is Iran at war with the US and Israel?
Iran has been at war since February 28, when the United States and Israel launched a surprise bombing campaign that killed its supreme leader. An April ceasefire ended the initial phase of intense bombardment, but sporadic exchanges of fire have continued, particularly around the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has largely blocked since the war began.
How did survivors describe the aftermath?
The Red Crescent shared aerial footage filmed after daybreak on Wednesday, showing a hole in the roof of a house at the wedding site and wreckage strewn across nearby alleyways. The bride's father, Ali Mallahi, called it "a very saddening incident" in footage carried by state media. "I really don't know what to say. Thank God the casualties were not higher," he said.
Other footage showed wounded children lying in hospital beds. One man, suffering a head injury, said he heard fighter jets overhead as he arrived at the wedding. "As we arrived there, an explosion happened. It was really powerful, so powerful that even before I arrived there, pieces and debris from the building smashed into my head and face and I passed out," he said in a video carried by local media. "Lots of children and women were horribly injured. All the people were ordinary people," he added.
On Instagram, a woman with henna-covered hands posted a video after the strike, saying, "My hands and feet are still shaking." In a follow-up post, she said the bride, groom and their immediate family were "safe."
Comments
See what people are discussing