Iran has claimed that a US air strike hit a wedding party in the country's south, killing at least four civilians amid an uptick in attacks that has raised the prospect of renewed escalation in the 6-month-old conflict.
Iranian officials said dozens of others were wounded in the alleged September 1 strike in Kuhestak, a town along the coast of the Strait of Hormuz, a major flashpoint in the confrontation with the United States.
The US military has not addressed the strike directly.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Tim Hawkins said it was aware of the reports, adding that "the US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC," referring to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
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2 Filipino Sailors Killed In Attack On Saudi Oil Tanker In Strait Of HormuzIranian state media shared videos showing debris and damage at what they said was the wedding site in Kuhestak.
RFE/RL could not independently verify the footage.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said shrapnel from the alleged US attack struck a residential home where a wedding party was being held. The humanitarian group said the dead included a 4-year-old named Amirali Karimi.
The wedding site was located close to a telecommunications tower that was destroyed in the alleged strike, said Moin Arjmand, director of the Balochistan Human Rights Documentation Network, a foreign-based monitoring group that documents human rights abuses in Iran.
"The telecommunications tower, after being hit by the missile, fell vertically on the ground and completely blocked the street," he told RFE/RL's Radio Farda.
He added that the Internet and telecommunications were subsequently disrupted in the area.
New Flareup
The alleged attack came as the US military said it had carried out a new wave of strikes in response to the IRGC's attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has effectively closed since the start of the war in February.
US forces targeted "air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine laying capabilities, and communications sites," according to CENTCOM.
Iranian officials said seven people were also killed in US strikes in three locations in Iran's southwestern Khuzestan Province on September 1.
Iran responded to the strikes by firing missiles at US targets in Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait on September 2.
The exchange was the deadliest and most intense since July, when a memorandum of understanding signed a month earlier aimed at ending the war unraveled.
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Iranian Condemnation
The alleged strike on the wedding party was widely condemned by Iranian officials.
Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, labeled it a "war crime" and vowed Tehran would respond "with firmness."
Iran's top negotiator with the United States, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, called Washington the "Great Satan," following the alleged attack -- a term routinely used by Iranian officials for decades to denounce the United States.
Iran has accused the United States of several deadly attacks on civilians during the war.
Tehran said the deadliest incident was an air strike on a girls' elementary school in the southern city of Minab, which it said killed as many as 165 schoolgirls and teachers. United Nations experts have expressed "deep concern" about the attack.
The Pentagon announced an investigation that has yet to report its findings.
US and Israeli military officials have said their operations have targeted Iranian command and control centers, missile sites, and other military and state facilities. But rights groups say civilian sites, including hospitals and sports facilities, have also been hit during the conflict.