IRNA and Iranian state television said Wednesday that four people were killed at a home in Kuhestak during a wedding — two women and two children, aged 4 and 16 — and at least 68 were wounded. [1] AP's Thursday explainer still leads with that image: a hole in the roof, debris in the courtyard, Fars photographs of a damaged house. [1] Then it cites the Balochistan Human Rights Documentation Network. Moein Arjomand, the group's director, told the AP that witnesses said at least two missiles hit the communications tower at Kuhestak's port, about 100 meters from Ali Mallahi's house, and another hit a pier. [1] The group said the 16-year-old was killed by shrapnel as he rode a motorcycle near the tower, not at the wedding as Iranian media reported. [1] The deaths are Tuesday's. The split is Thursday's copy.
Wednesday's paper held four named dead and refused to collapse the health minister's 18/108 whole-wave claim into the wedding. Al Jazeera's dedicated Wednesday headline was four dead while the URL slug still said five. Tuesday's paper printed four including a child and more than 50 injured, with Washington still silent on the wedding by the Guardian wrap. A companion World file owns Thursday's funeral and the Kuwait intercept. This file owns the count. Do not merge them.
Ahmad Nafisi, Hormozgan's deputy governor, had told state television just after the strike that five people were killed. There was no explanation for the change. [1] AP still prints that unexplained five beside IRNA's four. Al Jazeera's Thursday ICC piece still says four killed and 67 wounded at the party. [2] Do not print that Al Jazeera revised to five. It did not.
Ali Mallahi, a fisherman, was celebrating his daughter's wedding. "The missile completely destroyed the ceiling of the house," he told state television, pointing to the hole. [1] He said a neighboring house that shares the same yard was hit by another missile. Like most of the town, Mallahi is Baluch. [1] A man at the hospital in Minab, bandages on his head and arm, said he was heading to the wedding when he heard jets. The explosion hit as he arrived. "Blocks were falling and hitting people's heads. And many small children and women that were there were terribly injured. So many," he said in a video posted by the Iranian Red Crescent, which did not identify him. [1] Those are the house. They are not Arjomand's motorcycle.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society asked the International Criminal Court on Wednesday for "an independent, impartial, thorough, and effective investigation" given the "civilian character of the location." [2] It timed the strike at 9:30 p.m. local, 18:00 GMT Tuesday, and warned deaths may rise "given the critical condition of some of the injured." [2] Neither the United States nor Iran is party to the Rome Statute. [2] Dawn, a human rights group, has previously said Iran could accept the court's ad hoc jurisdiction over crimes on its territory from a specific date. [2] A letter is not a docket. An invitation is not jurisdiction.
Capt. Tim Hawkins, the CENTCOM spokesman, said the U.S. military was looking into the reports. He would not say whether a formal investigation had been opened. [1] "Looking into" is not a named inquiry. Al Jazeera quoted Baghaei calling the strike a war crime and writing on X that "Sirik is not a story." [2] No independent /status/ URL was recovered. The quote stays in Al Jazeera's prose.
N.R. Jenzen-Jones of Armament Research Services told the AP that fragments Iranian media said came from the strike on Mallahi's home indicated an "American air-delivered guided weapon." [1] He first identified a SLAM-ER, then said further imagery made a JSOW guided bomb more likely, without ruling out a SLAM-ER or multiple weapons. [1] CENTCOM declined to comment on the analyst. [1] An expert read of Iranian-released fragments is not a completed munition chain.
Iran has said four Revolutionary Guard members and 10 Basij volunteers were killed in the latest U.S. round, AP wrote, with 108 wounded according to state media. [1] Al Jazeera's ICC piece cites the Health Ministry for at least 18 killed and 142 wounded. [2] Al Jazeera's companion wrap uses 18 and 108. [3] Print both. Do not pick one silently. Do not collapse either into the wedding four, or into Arjomand's motorcycle.
The funeral happened. IRNA still has four at the house. A Baluch rights group has the teenager at the tower. Nafisi's five remains unexplained. Hawkins is looking into reports and will not say if a formal investigation exists. The count still moves.
-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem