Funeral-goers gathered outside the village of Kuhestak in southern Iran on Thursday to bury victims of an explosion that tore through a wedding two days earlier. Iran’s Mehr news agency filmed a pickup truck carrying a flag-draped coffin under a canopy of palm fronds. A reporter at the scene named the dead child as 4-year-old Amir-Mohammad Karimi and blamed “the criminal American regime.”
Iranian state television said a 22-year-old woman died in hospital that day, bringing the reported death toll to five. Iranian officials said nearly 70 people were wounded.
What the analysis found
An analysis published by Reuters on Thursday concluded that the blast was likely a direct hit by a U.S. munition, not a ricochet off another target. Reuters sent verified video and images to four military weapons experts. They said the damage fit a direct hit rather than secondary damage. Three of them judged the weapon more likely American than an errant Iranian air defence missile, and one said it may simply have missed its objective.
The strike came late Tuesday, when the United States hit what it called military targets along the Strait of Hormuz coast. Washington said the raids answered Iranian attacks on shipping in the strait. Sirik County, where Kuhestak sits, is on that stretch of coast.
Washington’s response
The United States has not accepted responsibility. Vice President JD Vance told reporters it was investigating. “We’re investigating it because obviously we care. We want to know,” he said, adding that when the U.S. military makes mistakes, “they learn from them.” The U.S. military said it was aware of the Iranian reports but “never targets civilians.”
A U.S. official, speaking anonymously, said the government was weighing several explanations: a U.S. strike, a ricochet from an Iranian air defence missile, or an errant interceptor.
The incident came some six months after a missile destroyed a primary school. Iranian officials said that attack killed more than 175 children and teachers. Reuters has reported that an initial internal U.S. military investigation found U.S. forces were likely responsible. The Pentagon has not released its findings.
Mourners at the wedding funerals threw petals into the air, and a casket was carried past soldiers standing at attention. The semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted a local man: “If it was a military location, it wouldn’t be so painful. This was a wedding ceremony, but they turned people’s joy into mourning.”
Escalation and oil
Iran responded on Wednesday with attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, and struck again early Thursday, saying it was targeting another U.S. base in Kuwait. Kuwait’s military said its air defences intercepted missiles and drones. Iran had reported 18 dead in the preceding U.S. assault.
No more major attacks were reported on Thursday, after the war’s biggest flare-up since July. Oil rose for a fourth straight day, with Brent crude futures above $96 a barrel. The war is also weighing on President Donald Trump’s approval ratings ahead of the November midterm elections, according to Reuters.
