Iran accuses US of wedding party bombing in Sirik, killing five

Iran has accused the United States of bombing a house during a wedding celebration in the southern county of Sirik, killing at least five people, including a child.

Esmaeil Baghaei, the spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the “brutal” attack hit the residence in the city of Kuhestak early on Wednesday. More than 50 people, including women and children, were killed and wounded, he said.

Iran’s Press TV reported that at least five people were killed.

“The martyrs include a child. Electricity and telephone are cut off,” Hossein Kermanpour, an official at Iran’s Ministry of Health, wrote on X.

Footage published by the Iranian Red Crescent Society showed a building with walls and windows blown out, and debris scattered on the ground. The humanitarian group also published pictures of several children receiving treatment at a hospital.

Reza Shahidiyan, the governor of Sirik county, later told the IRIB state broadcaster that 63 people were wounded, and that 50 of the victims were women and children.

All of the wounded were taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Minab and were “in stable condition”, he said.

The semi-official Fars news agency also published an account from a child who survived the blast.

The child said in a video he heard fighter jets before he arrived at the venue.

“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,” he said. “Everyone was just ordinary civilians.”

The reports came as the US military announced a new wave of strikes against “Iranian military targets”, saying it followed attempted attacks by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

The US military said it had hit Iranian air defence sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites.

The strikes follow a weekend exchange of fire and come amid a continuing standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blockaded since the start of the US and Israel’s war on the country on February 28.

Iran’s military said it retaliated by attacking US bases and assets in Jordan, Bahrain and Iraq. Kuwait also reported intercepting drones and missiles.

Baghaei, the Iranian spokesman, called for global action.

“This cruelty cannot be separated from the chain of atrocities that preceded it,” he said, pointing to attacks on the city of Minab and Lamerd on the first day of the war. In Minab, US forces struck an elementary school, killing more than 150 people, and in Lamerd, they hit a sport hall, killing at least 21 people.

“Iran will respond to these savage crimes with firmness,” Baghaei said. “Still, those governments and international institutions that remain silent in the face of such barbarism, or seek to justify such acts, must understand that their silence is not neutrality.”

In addition to Kuhestak, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported explosions in more coastal cities, including Konarak, Bandar Abbas, Jask, Asaluyeh and Ahvaz, as well as Qeshm Island.