Iran urges ICC probe into US strike on wedding party that killed 4

Iran's Red Crescent Society on September 3 sent a letter to the International Criminal Court (ICC) requesting an investigation into a US strike on a wedding party in the town of Kuhestak, in Hormozgan Province, southern Iran.

According to the humanitarian organization, the attack occurred at 9:30 p.m. local time on September 2, killing at least four people, including two women and two children (aged 4 and 16), and wounding 67 others. The Red Crescent warned that the death toll could rise due to the critical condition of some victims. An Iranian official said most of the wounded were also women and children.

In its letter to the ICC, Iran's Red Crescent stressed that the incident needs an “independent, impartial, thorough and effective investigation” given the “civilian nature of the site that was attacked.” The organization argued the strike may constitute a “war crime,” pointing out that international law prohibits attacks against civilians or civilian objects, as well as attacks that could cause excessive harm to civilians.

Reactions from various sides

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it was aware of the reports of the attack in Iranian media but asserted that the US does not strike civilians. Iran's Foreign Ministry, however, rejected this claim. Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei cited previous US airstrikes against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, and wrote on social media platform X: “The truth is so horrifying that even US propaganda has never dared to make such a claim as CENTCOM made today. Sirik is not a story. Civilians are real. The victims are real.”

Neither the US nor Iran is a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC. However, the human rights organization Dawn suggested Iran could still accept the court's jurisdiction over crimes committed on its territory from a specific date. “By filing such a declaration, with the date set to the start of the war, Iran would give the ICC jurisdiction over all airstrikes on Iranian territory,” the group stated.

The attack in Kuhestak comes as the US conducts a series of strikes on coastal areas of Iran near the Strait of Hormuz, accusing Tehran of seeking to attack US soldiers and commercial ships on the waterway. Iran's Health Ministry said the airstrikes on September 2 killed at least 18 people and wounded 142.

Call for UN Security Council condemnation

Iran's ambassador to the UN, Gholamhossein Darzi, called on the Security Council to condemn the attack in Kuhestak. In a statement, Darzi wrote: “The Islamic Republic strongly condemns this heinous and atrocious crime,” while emphasizing that “the deliberate targeting and killing of civilians, including children, constitutes a serious violation of the fundamental rules of international humanitarian law and amounts to a war crime.”

According to figures from the Iranian government, at least 3,468 people were killed during the first phase of the war that began on February 28 and ended with a ceasefire on April 8. A second phase of fighting from July 27 to August 24 killed an additional 59 people and wounded 666.

The deadliest attack of the war in terms of civilian casualties was the destruction of an elementary school in Minab on February 28, the first day of the war, which killed at least 156 people, including 120 children. The same day, another airstrike hit a sports hall in Lamerd, killing 21 people, including 4 children. Over more than six months of conflict, the US and Israel have also struck oil and gas facilities, fuel depots, steel and petrochemical plants, airports, seaports, bridges, power stations, medical centers, and water infrastructure across Iran.