TEHRAN – A fresh wave of deadly missile strikes carried out by United States military forces against civilian infrastructure and residential gatherings across southern Iran on Tuesday night has left over a dozen people dead and scores of others wounded, triggering widespread outrage and renewed calls for international criminal accountability over blatant violations of international humanitarian law.

The overnight aggression struck three separate locations in the vicinity of Ahvaz and Aghajari in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, alongside a series of lethal bombardments across the southern coastal province of Hormozgan.

The most egregious atrocity occurred in the coastal town of Kouhestak, situated in Hormozgan’s Sirik County, where American ordnance struck an active family wedding ceremony at around 8:00 p.m. local time on Tuesday. The horrific blast turned a peaceful gathering into a scene of carnage, killing at least five civilians and severely injuring 68 others, with women and children making up a large share of the casualties. Local medical personnel confirmed that a four-year-old child was among those killed on the spot.

Following the massacre, the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) issued an official statement attempting to justify the fatal strikes, falsely claiming that American forces had launched attacks exclusively on targets belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). CENTCOM attempted to link the aggression to what Washington described as recent Iranian actions against commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and alleged security threats to US forces stationed in the region.

Provincial officials and local witnesses vehemently dismissed Washington’s narrative, stressing that the struck site in Kouhestak was a clearly identifiable residential and social venue hosting a traditional family wedding reception with hundreds of non-combatants present.

The devastating strike on the Kouhestak wedding has drawn swift and unequivocal condemnation from legal observers, human rights defenders, and Iranian humanitarian bodies. In an official letter submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) demanded immediate legal action and a formal investigation following the US missile attack on the ceremony.

In its statement, the IRCS emphasized that given the reported civilian character of the location as the venue of a family wedding ceremony, as well as the presence of civilians at the site, the incident raises serious concerns under international humanitarian law and warrants an independent, impartial, thorough, and effective investigation.

The IRCS underscored that the Kouhestak massacre, which left innocent families devastated, constitutes a clear war crime under all established legal frameworks.

Senior Iranian officials have reacted with sharp indignation to the latest wave of American aerial assaults. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf forcefully condemned the attack on the wedding ceremony, stating that the deliberate targeting of civilians at schools, sports complexes, and social gatherings shows that Washington is operating and killing “like Satan.”

In a post on social platform X on Wednesday, Qalibaf stated that the Kouhestak bombing represents an indivisible part of a sustained campaign against defenseless civilians, referencing earlier high-casualty strikes against an educational center in Minab and a sports facility in Lamerd. He wrote: “Minab school: children massacred. Lamerd sports hall: kids slaughtered. Kouhestak wedding: children killed with families. If a power acts like Satan, picks targets like Satan, and kills like Satan, it’s Satan. Shields a junior Satan that does the same? It’s THE Great Satan.”

Hassan Ghashghavi, spokesman for the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, also questioned how the United States military could claim advanced reconnaissance capabilities while repeatedly hitting soft civilian targets. Ghashghavi stated that a regime which claims to utilize comprehensive satellite coverage to monitor even the smallest movement on Earth cannot credibly claim it failed to distinguish military installations from a school, a sports venue, or a wedding ceremony. He added that the United States has for decades dropped bombs and missiles on defenseless populations while routinely leaving the justification of its crimes to post-facto inquiry committees.

The latest strikes on Khuzestan and Hormozgan are part of an intensifying military confrontation that began on February 28, when joint military escalation by the United States and Israel plunged the region into active hostilities. During 39 days of war, Washington and Tel Aviv carried out repeated air and missile incursions across Iran, resulting in widespread civilian bloodshed that contradicts Western claims of precision targeting.  A Pakistani-mediated memorandum of understanding reached between the US and Iran on June 17—designed to underpin the ceasefire that had paused hostilities since April 8—was violated by the administration of President Donald Trump.

The tragedy in Kouhestak follows earlier high-casualty attacks that shocked the nation. On the first day of the war on February 28, a catastrophic US strike hit a school in the city of Minab in Hormozgan province during peak school hours, killing 168 people, the vast majority of whom were young school children attending class alongside their teachers and school staff. The horrific loss of 168 lives in Minab triggered instantaneous global outrage, prompting protests across international capitals, emergency statements from international legal bodies, and direct condemnations from human rights watchdogs that denounced the carnage as a flagrant breach of the Geneva Conventions and international legal protections afforded to educational facilities.

That tragedy was compounded shortly afterward in Lamerd, Fars Province, where an aerial strike blasted a community sports hall during scheduled youth sports training sessions. The attack in Lamerd killed young athletes, coaches, and spectators, critically wounding scores more and reducing a vital public recreation center to rubble.

The deliberate bombing of the Minab school, the Lamerd sports hall, and now the Kouhestak wedding ceremony underscores a continuous and documented pattern of attacks on protected civilian sites. Legal experts note that the sheer scale of non-combatant casualties across Minab, Lamerd, and Kouhestak dismantles any pretense of collateral damage and demonstrates systemic negligence and criminal disregard for human life.

Shortly following the latest aggression in Khuzestan and Hormozgan, Iran’s Armed Forces responded by staging a series of combined retaliatory operations featuring precision ballistic and cruise missile strikes alongside advanced long-range drone barrages targeting regional American military installations and strategic interests.

Iranian military and diplomatic officials have reiterated that the Islamic Republic will exercise its legitimate right to self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, affirming that unprovoked aggression against Iranian soil, citizens, and civilian infrastructure will be met with decisive responses and relentless pursuit of justice through international legal tribunals.