Iran Accuses US of Bombing Wedding, Claiming 68 Civilian Casualties
The Iranian government has accused the United States of carrying out a military strike on a wedding ceremony in southern Iran, claiming that 68 civilians were killed or injured in the incident.
The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran said the alleged attack occurred on September 1 during a wedding ceremony in Bandar Kuhestak, Sirik County, in southern Iran.
In a statement issued by its Press Department, the embassy alleged that US munitions struck the location where families had gathered for the private celebration, resulting in casualties among civilians, including women and children.
The embassy condemned the reported incident, describing the victims as ordinary civilians who had no role in military decision-making and posed no threat to the United States.
It questioned the rationale behind an alleged military strike on a residential area where a wedding was taking place and called on the international community to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Iran also linked the reported wedding attack to an earlier alleged US strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab, which it said killed a significant number of Iranian children and other civilians.
According to the embassy, reports concerning the Minab incident also indicated that US missiles were used in the attack.
“From the school in Minab to the wedding ceremony in Kuhestak,” the embassy said, “ordinary Iranian people are paying the price of U.S. military aggression.”
The Iranian authorities questioned how civilian locations such as schools and wedding venues could be considered legitimate military targets, asking what threat women, children and families could pose to US national security.
The allegations come amid heightened military tensions between Iran and the United States, with international attention focused on the impact of the confrontation on civilian populations.
Invoking international law, the Iranian embassy maintained that Iran did not initiate what it described as the latest aggression and argued that the United States had attacked the territory of a sovereign state.
It cited Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which recognises the inherent right of states to individual or collective self-defence following an armed attack.
The embassy argued that a state subjected to military action should not automatically have subsequent defensive measures portrayed as threats or destabilising conduct.
It also stressed that protecting civilians remains a fundamental principle of international humanitarian law and should apply regardless of nationality.
“The life of an Iranian child, an Iranian woman, or an ordinary Iranian citizen is no less valuable than the life of any other human being,” the statement said.
The embassy urged the international community to ensure that civilian deaths in Iran do not become normalised, warning that silence over attacks affecting civilians could contribute to further tragedies.
It said the reported casualties at the wedding should not be dismissed as another development in the ongoing conflict, but should instead prompt scrutiny of the circumstances and legality of attacks involving civilian populations.
“A wedding ceremony should never become a battlefield,” the embassy declared, stressing that civilians should not bear the cost of military ambitions.
The statement did not include any response from the US government to the allegations.
