Wreckage and ruin at site of wedding hit by alleged US strike

KUHESTAK, Iran - Outside a home in southern Iran, family photos, appliances and household items were piled in a courtyard, pulled from the wreckage of what the authorities said was a US strike that killed five people as they gathered to celebrate a wedding.

The bride and groom had not yet arrived when the blast tore through the Mallahi family’s home in Kuhestak on the night of Sept 1, according to relatives who spoke to Iranian media.

But dozens of women and children had already gathered in the compound, waiting for the festivities to begin.

The extent of the destruction was stark, according to AFP journalists who visited the area on Sept 6 under the supervision of the Iranian authorities.

The ceiling of one of the rooms had completely collapsed, and walls in a hallway had deep cracks.

All of the windows had been shattered, while the kitchen area was in shambles.

Abandoned shoes, many of them dressy women’s sandals, were piled up in one room, while a gaping hole the width of a double-doorway was blown in the wall of another.

Part of the building’s exterior wall was blackened by fire.

The dead included a four-year-old child and three women, one of whom died later in hospital, as well as one man, with nearly 70 people wounded.

Homes evacuated

Kuhestak, a small coastal town more accustomed to the sound of the surf in the nearby Strait of Hormuz, was rocked by the thunder of explosions as the US carried out a wider bombardment of southern Iran on Sept 1.

On Sept 6, workers were cutting away the remains of a telecommunications tower that was knocked down in the attacks.

The tower, about 15 metres high, had stood near the town’s port, and was about 100 metres from the house where the wedding was taking place.

A technical and administrative building in the same complex was also seriously damaged.

Many pieces of shrapnel could be seen in surrounding areas, including at a shop near the tower, and several houses have been evacuated.

At the Kuhestak port, the pier and a large barge were also damaged.

The Iranian authorities have blamed the United States for the attack on the wedding ceremony, with the judiciary saying the US used precision-guided munitions and the foreign ministry calling it a “war crime”.

Washington has not accepted responsibility for the attack, but has said it is investigating and does not target civilians intentionally.

US officials said the military had targeted communications and other military infrastructure in the area. AFP