Vice President JD Vance told a White House briefing on Thursday that he was "extremely sceptical" of Iranian reports that a U.S. strike hit a wedding in Kuhestak, and that the United States was investigating. [1] "I will say that the Iranian state media has not been a very good scribe about what's happened in the conflict thus far," he said. [1] "What I can say with 100 percent confidence is that, unlike the IRGC, the United States never targets civilians in combat." [4] "Unfortunately, obviously, sometimes things happen." [4] The deaths are Tuesday's. The funeral was Thursday. Friday is the probe-plus-forensic fight. It is not a closed count.
Thursday's lead held four named dead at the Kuhestak funeral and a subsided flareup, with the extra U.S. round still a sentence. The companion World file printed a Baluch rights group moving the 16-year-old onto a motorcycle by the tower, while MSM still led with the wedding photo. Friday adds Vance's sentence, Reuters' updated munition analysis, and state television's fifth death still walking beside four. Do not print that Al Jazeera revised to five. It did not. Do not silently unify Amirali Karimi with Mehr's Amir-Mohammad.
Reuters' visual investigation, updated Friday, shared video and images with four military weapons experts. [2] All four said the damage was consistent with a direct hit, not secondary damage from a munition ricocheting off another target. [2] Three said the munition was likely a U.S. weapon rather than an errant Iranian air-defense missile. [2] Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said American forces had struck in the Kuhestak area on September 1, specifically the town's telecommunications tower, about 135 meters from the wedding house. [2] Trevor Ball, a former U.S. Army explosive-ordnance technician now at Armament Research Services, said the blast "could not result from fragments from the nearby strike on the communications tower striking the area." [2] Gareth Collett, a retired British Army brigadier, said the weight of evidence leaned toward "a U.S. 500 lb air-dropped munition." [2] Sebastian Schutte of the Peace Research Institute Oslo said the hole in the roof was not a ricochet off the tower. [2] Ball identified some remnants shown on Iranian media as belonging to a JSOW glide bomb. [2] Reuters could not verify that those fragments came from the house. [2] One expert said the weapon may simply have missed its objective. [2] Al Jazeera's locals and experts still flag a possible SLAM-ER. [4] Keep SLAM-ER as claimed. It is not Reuters' JSOW.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said four people were killed and 67 wounded when shrapnel hit a family wedding at a home in Sirik on Tuesday. [1] BBC named the four as Zarkhatoon Taheri, 50; Kolsum Mallahi Nazhdnia, 43; Mohammad Mallahi, 16; and Amirali Karimi, four. [1] Iranian state media said a fifth person, a 22-year-old woman, died in hospital shortly after. [1] Reuters' wrap, published as Friday copy, put that fifth death on Thursday and the total at five, with nearly 70 wounded. [3] Reuters' investigation, citing the Balochistan Human Rights Documentation Network and Haalvsh, kept four dead and at least 68 injured, and put three of the dead at the wedding — Kolsoom Mollahi Najhandania, 43; Zarkhatoon Taheri, 50; and four-year-old Amir Mohammad Karimi — with 16-year-old Mohammad Mallahi killed while riding a motorcycle near the tower. [2] Print the split. Do not collapse IRCS four, state-television five, and the motorcycle. The paper still prints Amirali and Amir-Mohammad. It does not pick one.
Capt. Tim Hawkins, the CENTCOM spokesman, said Tuesday the U.S. military was aware of reports that "originated from Iranian state media" and was "looking into them." [4] "The US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC." [4] CENTCOM has not said whether a formal investigation exists. "Looking into" is not a named inquiry. Vance said, "We're investigating it because obviously we care. We want to know." [2][3] "If we do make mistakes, again, this is a big difference between us and Iran, when our military makes mistakes, they learn from them to try to get better from them." [3] A U.S. official, unnamed, said the government is looking at whether casualties came from a U.S. strike, a ricochet of an Iranian air-defense missile, or an errant interceptor. [2][3] Four experts reading a roof-level hole is not that close.
BBC Verify confirmed a video and two images taken Tuesday near Kuhestak's coast showing a telecommunications tower destroyed, and other videos of severely damaged houses about 130 meters north of the tower. [1] BBC Persian Forensics put the tower about 112 meters from the wedding house. [1] Reuters' satellite read is 135 meters. [2] Print both distances. Do not average. Iranian state media, citing Hormozgan telecommunication authorities, said the tower was a civilian structure delivering mobile, telephone, and internet service to Sirik County. [2]
Al Jazeera filed Vance into a pattern: My Lai, Azizabad, Kabul 2021, Abu Ghraib, Minab. [4] Emily Tripp of Airwars told the network that treating civilian-harm claims "like a PR crisis" stacks the odds against civilians. [4] A pattern piece is not a verdict. Minab remains a separate file: Reuters notes the Pentagon has not publicly released findings of that February school strike. [2] This file owns Kuhestak.
The count still moves. IRCS has four at the house. State television has a fifth in hospital. A rights group has the teenager at the tower. Reuters' experts have a roof-level direct hit they cannot chain to the JSOW fragments on Iranian television. Vance has skepticism, an investigation he will not name as formal, and "things happen." Hawkins is looking into reports. The Oval will not close the gap.
-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem