More than 50 women and children reportedly among those killed or wounded in Sirik as Tehran condemns attack

By Sadiq Abdulfatah

Iran has accused the United States of striking a residential building during a wedding celebration in the southern county of Sirik, killing at least five people, including a child, and injuring dozens of others.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the attack occurred early Wednesday in the city of Kuhestak and described it as a “brutal” assault on civilians.

More than 50 people, including women and children, were killed or wounded in the incident, Baghaei said.

Hossein Kermanpour, an official with Iran’s Ministry of Health, said the victims included a child. He also reported that electricity and telephone services had been cut off in the area.

Reza Shahidiyan, governor of Sirik County, later told Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB that 63 people had been wounded. He said women and children accounted for 50 of those affected.

The injured were taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Minab, where Shahidiyan said they were in stable condition.

A child who survived the blast also described the incident in an account published by the semi-official Fars news agency.

The survivor said fighter jets could be heard before he and others arrived at the wedding venue. He said an explosion occurred shortly after they arrived, sending bricks, stones and cement into the area and injuring several people.

The reported attack came as the US military announced another round of strikes against what it described as Iranian military targets.

According to the US military, the latest operation followed attempted attacks by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) against commercial vessels operating in the Strait of Hormuz.

The US said its strikes targeted Iranian air-defence positions, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications facilities.

The latest exchange follows fighting over the weekend and comes amid an ongoing confrontation over the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blockaded since the beginning of the US-Israeli war against the country on February 28.

Iranian forces said they responded by striking US bases and military assets in Jordan, Bahrain and Iraq. Kuwait also reported intercepting drones and missiles.

Baghaei called for international action over the reported strike in Sirik, saying the incident should be viewed alongside earlier attacks during the conflict.

He referred to strikes on Minab and Lamerd on the first day of the war. Iranian authorities say a US strike on an elementary school in Minab killed more than 150 people, while another strike on a sports hall in Lamerd killed at least 21 people.

“Iran will respond to these savage crimes with firmness,” Baghaei said.

He also criticised governments and international organisations that, according to him, had remained silent or attempted to justify such attacks, warning that silence in the face of what Iran describes as atrocities should not be regarded as neutrality.

Meanwhile, explosions were reported in several other Iranian coastal locations.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported blasts in Konarak, Bandar Abbas, Jask, Asaluyeh and Ahvaz, as well as on Qeshm Island.

The reports add to the growing civilian and military toll of the conflict as Iran and the United States continue exchanging attacks, with the strategically important Strait of Hormuz remaining at the centre of the confrontation.

Source: Al Jazeera