Arya News - Officials say at least 63 others wounded in attack on city of Kuhestak, including women and children.
Iran has accused the United States of bombing a house during a wedding celebration in the southern county of Sirik, killing at least five people, including a child.
Esmaeil Baghaei, the spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the “brutal” attack hit a residence in the city of Kuhestak early on Wednesday.
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Reza Shahidiyan, the governor of Sirik County, later told the IRIB state broadcaster that at least 63 others were wounded, and that 50 of the victims were women and children. All of the wounded have been taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Minab are “in stable condition,” he said.
The semi-official Fars news agency published an account from a child who survived the blast.
The child said he heard the sound of fighter jets before he arrived at the venue.
“When we arrived there, an explosion occurred. It was very intense. Bricks, stones, and cement hit me in the face and head, and many others were injured,” he said. “Everyone was just ordinary civilians.”
The reports came as US military announced a new wave of attacks against “Iranian military targets” saying it followed attempted attacks by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and on US troops.
It said it had hit air defence sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites.
The strikes follow a weekend exchange of fire, the first since July and the most significant escalation since then. They come amid a continuing standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blockaded since the start of the war, driving up global energy prices.
Baghaei, the Iranian spokesman, promised to respond to the US attacks.
“This cruelty cannot be separated from the chain of atrocities that preceded in it”, he said, including in the city of Minab, when US forces struck an elementary school on February 28 and killed more than 150 people, most of them children, and in the city of Lamerd, when US forces hit a sports hall on the same day, killing at least 21 people.
Tasnim, a semi-official Iranian news agency, reported further explosions in the south of the country, including in Konarak, Bandar Abbas and on Qeshm Island.
Iran’s military said it retaliated with attacks on US bases in Jordan and Bahrain.
Kuwait also reported intercepting missiles.
The IRGC said it had shot down a US MQ-9 drone using a new air defence system.