An explosion that ripped through a wedding celebration in southern Iran on Tuesday, killing four people and injuring at least 68 others, likely resulted from a direct hit by a US munition and not a ricochet off another target, according to an analysis by weapons experts who reviewed images and video verified by Reuters. The incident in the small town of Kuhestak has reignited concerns about the civilian toll in the US war with Iran and marks the most dramatic case since a missile struck an Iranian primary school in February, killing scores of children and teachers inside. The US Central Command had announced its forces carried out multiple strikes across Iran’s south on September 1, targeting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps air defence sites, radar systems, and communications facilities. The barrage came in retaliation for earlier Iranian attacks on US military assets around the Gulf. On Thursday, US President JD Vance said the United States was investigating the strike. “We’re investigating it because obviously we care. We want to know,” Vance said during a White House press briefing. Read: Vance: US probing airstrike that Iran says hit a wedding party The US military said it was aware of reports and was looking into them. Iran’s delegation to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On the night of the attacks, dozens of residents had gathered in a home in Kuhestak for a wedding ceremony, according to eyewitnesses. During the party, a munition likely struck the building’s roof. The truth of this unlawful war of choice - and the true face of the war crime - is in Sirik, where a wedding ceremony was brutally bombed as part of America’s desperate struggle to conceal its failure, not in AI-generated videos portraying American officials as triumphant heroes.… pic.twitter.com/7GlHxE9oP1 — Esmaeil Baqaei (@IRIMFA_SPOX) September 2, 2026 Reuters shared video and images of the incident with four military weapons experts who said the damage was consistent with a direct hit, as opposed to secondary damage from a munition ricocheting off a separate target. Three of the experts said the munition was likely a US weapon, rather than an errant Iranian air defence missile. After the strike, bloody shoes lay amid the rubble, and wedding decorations that are common in that part of Iran were strewn about, the images show. One eyewitness sent a voice note to Reuters moments after the strike, saying: “Kuhestak is destroyed. Four, five, ten houses were destroyed. Many people are under the rubble. God help us.” “Unfortunately, this happened during my daughter’s wedding ceremony, with drones — two drones.” At least four people were killed and 50 wounded at a wedding near Sirik, a coastal area on the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian Red Crescent reported, as the United States and Iran… pic.twitter.com/agW38liTn1 — TRT World (@trtworld) September 3, 2026 Local residents spoke on condition of anonymity. Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the US military had carried out strikes in the area of Kuhestak on September 1, specifically targeting the town’s telecommunications tower. That tower is roughly 135 meters from the site of the wedding celebration, according to satellite imagery. The tower was hit at approximately 9:30pm local time, according to Iranian media. The count of four deaths and 68 injuries came from Balochestan Human Rights Documentation Network and Haalvsh, which monitor and document human rights abuses. Three of the people killed were guests of the wedding – Kolsoom Mollahi Najhandania, 43; Zarkhatoon Taheri, 50; and four-year-old Amir Mohammad Karimi – according to the groups. The fourth person, 16-year-old Mohammad Mallahi, was killed while riding his motorcycle near the communications tower. The names have also been confirmed in Iranian media. The incident comes more than six months after a missile destroyed a primary school in Minab on February 28, hours after the start of the US and Israeli attacks on Iran that launched the current conflict. That hit killed more than 175 children and teachers, according to Iranian officials. The Pentagon has not publicly released the findings of its investigation into the Minab strike, which was the US military’s biggest civilian casualty attack in decades. But Reuters reported on March 5 that ‌an initial, internal US military investigation showed US forces were responsible for that strike on the opening day of the war with Iran. WARNING: Some of the images may distress some viewers. Dozens of people are injured and at least five killed, including a child, after US strikes hit a #wedding ceremony north of the Iranian port city of #Sirik. pic.twitter.com/bViQMe1MuC — Beyond Wars (@BeyondWars) September 2, 2026 At approximately 9:30pm local time on September 1, posts on social media started to circulate about an attack on the local wedding. Human rights groups in touch with local residents said that after the strike, local authorities pressured eyewitnesses not to discuss the attack with foreign media. Reuters spoke to residents through intermediaries. “At the wedding, there were a lot of people. Many [injured] people have been taken away, many more [injured people] are being taken right now,” one local resident said in a voice message just after the wedding was hit. Iranian state media, citing telecommunications authorities in Hormozgan, said the tower was a civilian structure that delivers mobile, telephone, and internet services to people living in the surrounding Sirik County. During the six-month war in Iran, the US military has repeatedly struck Iranian radar and communications facilities near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, intending to stop the Iranian military from threatening commercial ships and oil tankers transiting the waterway. Iran has shown that it can throttle energy shipments in the strait, driving up global energy costs and creating a political challenge for the Trump administration ahead of the US midterm Congressional elections. Trevor Ball, a former US Army explosive ordnance disposal technician and current weapons technical analyst for Armament Research Services, was among the experts who reviewed the photos and video at Reuters’ request. Wreckage recovered from the site of a US attack on a wedding ceremony in #Sirik, southern Iran, late Tuesday, September 1, has been identified as belonging to a US-made AGM-84H SLAM-ER cruise missile. Weapons analyst Trevor Ball identified the remnants as the SLAM-ER, a… pic.twitter.com/vtuq2z8MJK — Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) September 2, 2026 “The damage seen appears to be from a munition which detonated on contact with the roof, or just above the roof,” he said, adding it was apparently a direct hit. “The visible blast damage could not result from fragments from the nearby strike on the communications tower striking the area.” He said it was likely a US weapon. Collett agreed with Ball’s analysis. “The weight of evidence leans towards a US 500 lb air-dropped munition as opposed to an Iranian air defence missile,” he said. Sebastian Schutte, a Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, also reviewed the visual material. Based on available evidence, he also agreed that the hole on the roof was not the result of a ricochet off of the telecommunications tower. The three experts said it was unlikely that a misfired Iranian missile had destroyed the home. Schutte said the angle of the impact was inconsistent with an air defence missile, and Collett said there was no evidence of the kind of fragmentation that would normally be present with an air defence warhead. Various weapon fragments were also shown on Iranian media. Ball identified “some of these remnants” as belonging to a joint standoff weapon (JSOW), a type of glide bomb commonly used by the US military. On September 3, mourners gathered to pay their respects in a funeral procession for 4-year-old Amir Mohammad Karimi in the town of Sirik, Hormozgan Province. WANA via REUTERS A grand funeral ceremony is being held for the victims of US' criminal strike on a wedding in Kuhestak, Hormozgan Province. pic.twitter.com/eZJjuROPkC — IRNA News Agency ☫ (@IrnaEnglish) September 3, 2026 On Thursday, residents of Kuhestak held a funeral for those killed. Mourners filled the procession, carrying a casket and holding posters above their heads as a funeral prayer played in the background. Women wearing black full-body cloaks with bright red traditional facemasks distinctive to the southern coastal region of Iran threw flowers on 4-year-old Amir Mohammad Karimi’s small casket as it passed. “The situation in Sirik is sad and mournful, and people are still in shock,” said one eyewitness.