ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A US strike targeting coastal locations in southern Iran hit a wedding ceremony overnight on Tuesday, killing four civilians and wounding at least 63 others, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) claimed.
According to the broadcaster, four civilians were killed in the US airstrikes on Tuesday, including a four-year-old boy named Amirali Karimi, and 63 others were wounded. Fifty of the injured were women in addition to an unspecified number of minors attending a wedding ceremony in Kuhestak, a coastal city in Sirik district.
The Iranian Red Crescent alleged the strike killed "between four and five civilians, including a four-year-old child," and left "50 to 68 people wounded."
“Iran will respond to these savage crimes with firmness,” Esmail Baghaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, wrote on X.
“This cruelty cannot be separated from the chain of atrocities that preceded it,” added Baghaei, referring to attacks on the cities of Minab and Lamerd on the first day of the war.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of the Parliament of Iran, in a post on X, stated, “If a power acts like Satan, picks targets like Satan, and kills like Satan, it’s Satan.”
The US has not yet responded to Iran’s claims.
Iran has accused the US and Israel of committing war crimes and human rights violations. Iran has claimed that the US struck a primary school named Minab in the city of Minab of Hormuzgan province in the first days of the war, killing more than a hundred minors. The United States has thus far rejected the claim.
Iran also blamed the US and Israel for bombing a volleyball court on February 28 in Lamerd city of Fars province while female players were training inside, killing more than 18 civilians and wounding around 100 others.
The war started in late February and ended in a truce in June. However, disagreements over the Strait of Hormuz’s administration and Iran’s nuclear ambitions have prevented lasting peace. Both countries have since June engaged in tit-for-tat strikes.
The latest round flared on Sunday when Washington carried out airstrikes on Iran's Larak Island in Hormozgan against what CENTCOM said were Iranian army "minelaying forces."
The IRGC responded on Monday and said it launched a "punitive counteroffensive" using missile and drone assault on the King Hussein and Al-Azraq air bases in Jordan using ballistic missiles.
On Tuesday, the US struck the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in what it said were in response to the latter attacking commercial ships and American service members in the region (CENTCOM).
Iranian state news agency outlets announced on Wednesday morning that US strikes claimed the lives of seven members of armed forces. Three fighters of the Basij paramilitary forces were killed on Lavan island and four IRGC aerospace fighters in Western Iran’s Kermanshah province were killed from US air strikes.
The US president Donald Trump, on his Truth social media app, signaled potential escalation if Iran were to respond to Tuesday’s attacks. “If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level.”
Iran on Wednesday responded with missile and drone attacks against what it said were US assets in several countries in the Middle East.
The Iranian Army said that “in response to the targeting of innocent civilians, dozens of the army's strike drones have since early this morning targeted radar systems and positions of American forces at al-Dhafra and al-Minhad bases in the United Arab Emirates," according to a statement carried by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
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