Iran accuses US of ‘war crime’ after missile blast kills four people at wedding

Iran has accused the US of a “war crime” after a missile blast killed at least four people and injured 68 who were attending a wedding at a private home in a coastal city of southern Iran, as the fresh exchange of strikes prompted fears of a wider renewal of hostilities.Iranian media said that the wedding ceremony was being held in a home in the city of Kuhestak, Hormozgan province, late on Tuesday when a US missile struck, with shrapnel and debris from the strike killing and injuring people.Among the dead was a four-year-old child, Amir-Ali Karimi, and a 16-year-old, Mohammad Mollahi.“It’s a terrible thing. I’m extremely worried and upset about what happened – really upset,” Ali Mollahi, the father of the bride, told Mehr News.Footage of the aftermath of the strike shows a caved-in roof, blown-out windows and ground riddled with debris. Photograph: Iranian Red Crescent/AFP/Getty ImagesThe deputy of the provincial government, Ahmad Nafisi, said first responders had headed immediately to the scene and transferred the wounded to the hospitals.Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson called the US attack a “war crime” and said Iran “will respond to these savage crimes with firmness”.The chief Iranian negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, said the attack had killed families with children, and called the US the “great Satan”.“If a power acts like Satan, picks targets like Satan and kills like Satan, it’s Satan. Shields a junior Satan that does the same? It’s THE Great Satan,” Ghalibaf said in a post on X.The strike on Kuhestak appeared to signal another cycle of escalation in the US-Iran conflict. Photograph: Masoud Mohamadi/Tasnim News/AFP/Getty ImagesThe US attacks on Tuesday ended a month-long uneasy truce between the US and Iran and appeared to signal a resumption of another cycle of escalation. US Central Command (Centcom) said the overnight strikes focused on Iranian military targets including air defence sites, radars and maritime assets.Iran responded by launching drones and missiles on US bases across the Middle East, including in Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE. Iran’s military spokesperson, Lt Col Ebrahim Zolfaghari, vowed “heavier, broader, and more crushing and devestating” retaliation.Videos of the aftermath of the strike show a caved-in roof, blown-out windows and ground riddled with debris, as well as walls pockmarked with what appeared to be holes from shrapnel. Footage from a nearby hospital showed women in wedding attire watching as injured children were being treated.“When we arrived there, an explosion occurred. It was very intense. Bricks, stones and cement hit me in the face and head, and many others were injured,” a child who was injured at the wedding told the state-affiliated Fars news agency.A spokesperson for Centcom, Tim Hawkins, said the US was aware of reports of civilian casualties, but the “US military never targets civilians, unlike the [Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps]”.In February, a strike on an elementary school killed at least 156 people, including more than 120 schoolchildren. Independent investigations concluded that the US likely carried out the strike with the assistance of AI, though the US government said the incident remained under investigation.A separate strike on Kuhestak hit a communications tower about 150 metres from the home where the wedding was being held. Photograph: Masoud Mohammadi/APPictures of shrapnel collected at the site of Tuesday’s attack were published on Iranian state media, and appeared to show the internal components of US munitions. Trevor Ball, an independent weapons analyst, identified some of the remnants as belonging to the Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (Slam-Er) missile, which is made by the US weapons company Boeing. The Slam-Er is a 1,500-pound, GPS-guided missile touted by Boeing to be “extremely accurate.”It was unclear if the home where the wedding was being held was struck directly, or if a missile hit close to the home and debris from the strike hit the home and its occupants. CCTV footage captured at least six strikes in the area within a minute. A separate strike appeared to hit a communications tower about 150 metres away from the home.The US has been targeting communications and radar infrastructure along Iran’s coast to try to stop its blockade on the strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint which prior to the US-Iran war was a transit point for at least 20% of the world’s oil supply. Iran has virtually closed the strait since the start of the Iran war, frustrating the US president, Donald Trump, who is facing a midterm election with expensive gas prices and knock-on inflation across the board.In recent weeks, the US has focused on trying to degrade Iran’s capacity to strike ships transiting the strait to reopen the waterway for traffic.