A U.S. missile strike near the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week struck a wedding party, and, according to Iranian state media, four people were killed, including two women and two children, with more than 60 people wounded.
According to the Associated Press, the wedding celebration in the town of Kuhestak, in the country of Sirik, was for the marriage of a fisherman’s daughter.
(Dec. 01, 2020) – The guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) launches a Block V Tomahawk, the weapon’s newest variant, during a missile exercise. This event marked the first time a Block V Tomahawk missile was operationally tested, marking the Navy’s transition to a more advanced capability for the fleet. Block V includes an upgrade that will enhance navigation performance and provide robust and reliable communications. Chafee is currently assigned to Carrier Strike Group ONE and is homeported in Pearl Harbor. (U.S. Navy photo by Ens. Sean Ianno/Released)
Tomahawk Block IV Missile. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
“The missile completely destroyed the ceiling of the house,” that fisherman, Ali Mallahi, told state TV, as cited by the AP. Iran had claimed that 18 people were killed in the U.S. strikes that day.
“Blocks were falling and hitting people’s heads. And many small children and women that were there were terribly injured. So many,” one man at a hospital told state media, per the AP.
U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins told the AP that the military was “looking into” the circumstances of the strike, although he did not confirm that it had launched a full investigation. Hawkins had said, after the initial reports, that “we are aware of reports, which originated from Iranian state media. The U.S. military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC.”
And one weapons expert, N.R. Jenzen-Jones of Armament Research Services, told the AP that the weapon from the wedding strike was likely an “American air-delivered guided weapon.”
The site of the wedding is about 18 miles from the location of the school in Minab where more than 100 people were killed in a missile strike on the first day of the war in late February. The Pentagon has not issued any official finding on that strike, although Democrats in the Senate have called for clarity on its findings.
“There is no justification for withholding an unclassified accounting of what happened, what went wrong, and what the Department is doing to prevent recurrence,” a group of two dozen Senators wrote in a letter to the Pentagon in July. A Pentagon spokesman told Reuters at the time that the investigation was ongoing.
The wedding strike has drawn attention to something that’s gotten not enough of it since the war began: The large civilian death toll.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), described as an independent Iranian rights group, said that as of April, 3,636 people had been killed in Iran since the start of the war, including 1,701 civilians.
Per Reuters, the U.S. has said that 18 military personnel have been killed and more than 750 wounded since the start of the war.
The Killing Continues in Iran and Beyond
A Reuters report Wednesday stated that the recent renewal of hostilities had “cast renewed attention on its civilian toll,” both in Iran and in the different Middle Eastern countries that have been hit with missiles throughout the war.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was among those expressing concern about civilian deaths.
The Secretary-General was “deeply alarmed by reports of civilian casualties, including a strike that reportedly hit a wedding ceremony in Iran,” his spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said this week, per Reuters.
“The Secretary-General condemns all attacks against civilians,” Dujarric added. “He recalls that all parties must respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution.”
A Call to the ICC
According to Al Jazeera, the Iranian Red Crescent Society has written a letter to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the missile attack on the wedding. The Red Crescent Society called for an “independent, impartial, thorough, and effective investigation,” considering the “civilian character of the location” and a possible war crime.
Neither the United States nor Iran is a party to the International Criminal Court, as Al Jazeera noted.
Esmaeil Baghaei, the spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, assailed the strike in social media posts, as well as the denials by CENTCOM spokesman Hawkins that the U.S. targets civilians.
That post, surprisingly, included a clip from the American TV series Homeland, which depicted a U.S. drone strike on a wedding, in that case in Pakistan.
“The reality is so horrifying that even American propaganda has never dared to make the claim Hawkins is making today,” the spokesman posted.
“Sirik is not a story. The civilians are real. The victims are real.”
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
