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Wedding strike and skepticism
U.S. Vice President JD Vance said he was "extremely sceptical" of reports that a U.S. missile struck a wedding in the Iranian town of Kuhestak on Tuesday, while the United States said it was investigating the incident.
“Vance said he was “extremely sceptical” of the reports about the wedding strike”
Vance told reporters at a White House briefing that "We're investigating it because obviously we care. We want to know," and he added that the Iranian state media had not been a "very good scribe" about the conflict.
The Al Jazeera account said a missile attack hit a wedding celebration in Kuhestak, Hormozgan, on Tuesday night, killing four people and injuring 67, citing the Iranian Red Crescent Society.
The AP report said Iranian state media identified four people—two women and two children—as killed and more than 60 were wounded, and it described heavy explosions shaking the coastal town on Tuesday night.
Reuters reported that an analysis it published said the damage "likely resulted from a direct hit by a U.S. munition" and that the Iranian state television later said a 22-year-old woman died in hospital, taking the total reported death toll to five.
Voices, funerals, and disputes
In the aftermath in Kuhestak, the Guardian described mourning in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province after a strike on a wedding killed at least four people, including a child, and injured more than 60, according to local authorities.
The Guardian quoted a local barber, Ahmad*, saying, "I don’t really have words. Ours is a small town and we all know each other and are brothers. We are all mourning."
Reuters said Vance told reporters that the United States was looking into the incident because "obviously we care. We want to know," while the U.S. military said it "never targets civilians".
The Hill reported Vance’s framing that the Iranian state media had not been a "very good scribe" and that he had "100 percent confidence" the United States never targets civilians in combat.
AP reported that U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said the U.S. military was looking into the reports and that it "never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC," referring to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
What comes next
The competing casualty figures and the lack of U.S. acceptance of responsibility set the stage for further scrutiny, with Reuters saying the U.S. had not accepted responsibility and that Iranian state television later raised the reported death toll to five.
“seeking legal action against the perpetrators of the “grave” attack”
Al Jazeera reported that the Iranian Red Crescent Society wrote to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court seeking legal action against the perpetrators of the “grave” attack.
The AP account said the U.S. military was looking into the reports but would not say if it had launched a formal investigation, while it described the strike as coming amid the latest round of American bombardment in southern Iran targeting air defenses, radar systems and maritime assets.
Reuters said the U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity said Washington was looking at scenarios including whether casualties were caused by a U.S. strike, a ricochet off an Iranian air defence missile, or an errant interceptor itself.
The Reuters report also tied the incident to the broader escalation, saying Iran responded to the U.S. strikes with attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, and that the war’s biggest flare-up since July appeared to subside with no more major attacks reported on Thursday.