The munition with “high likelihood” missed a comms tower nearby
A US munition likely landed a direct hit on a wedding in Iran last week after it veered off its designated target, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing a person familiar with the operation.
The incident occurred in Kuhestak, Hormozgan Province, amid a new wave of airstrikes unleashed by the US on Iran on Tuesday. One of the munitions hit a residential home with a wedding party underway, killing at least five and wounding nearly 70. The Iranian authorities said the victims were three women and two children aged four and 16.
The explosion at the party was highly likely a result of a direct hit by a US munition, according to the WaPo. The US Navy dropped six glide bombs at a communications tower in the town, with all but one striking the designated target. The stray munition missed the tower, reportedly hitting the house located around 135 meters (440 feet) away. The comms tower was the only designated target within the town during the Tuesday strikes, the source told the WaPo, ruling out any prospects the home was attacked intentionally or mixed with some other target.
The reporting is consistent with earlier pieces run by AP, the New York Times, Reuters, and other outlets, which indicated that the wedding party was hit by a US-guided weapon, most likely a JSOW glide bomb, rather than debris or a faulty anti-aircraft missile fired by Iran.
US Vice President J.D. Vance said on Thursday that Washington is looking into the incident. “We’re investigating it because obviously we care. We want to know,” he told reporters. The US military has insisted it does not target civilians and has not taken responsibility for the strike.
The attack on the wedding party has become the latest in the string of civilian mass-casualty incidents that occurred amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
On the opening day of the US-Israeli war on Iran, US forces hit an elementary school in Minab, killing 175 people, predominantly young girls. At least 21 civilians, roughly a third of whom were children, were killed in Lamerd that day. Tehran has repeatedly accused the US of committing war crimes throughout the conflict, reporting some 3,000 civilian casualties since it began late in February.
