The death toll from a U.S. missile strike on a wedding party in Iran has risen to five. Among the dead is a 6-year-old boy. A funeral for the victims was held on Thursday. Nearly 70 others were wounded in the U.S. bombing that struck a home in the Iranian city of Kuhestak on Tuesday, one of dozens of U.S. attacks on Iran earlier this week. Reuters reports it was likely a direct hit by a U.S. munition, and not a ricochet off another target. Other news outlets, including The New York Times and the BBC, came to similar conclusions.
On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. will investigate the missile strike but that he doubts the U.S. was behind the attack.
Vice President JD Vance: “I will say that the Iranian state media has not been a very good scribe about what’s happened in the conflict thus far, so I’m extremely skeptical of this.”
Vance’s pledge to investigate the bombing of the wedding party comes six months after U.S. cruise missiles struck an elementary school in Minab. That attack killed over 150 people, most of them students. The Pentagon has yet to publicly release a report on the strikes. Meanwhile, Vance was asked by CNN’s Kaitlin Collins whether the war would continue into November.
Kaitlan Collins: “Will this war be over by the time of the midterm elections?”
Vice President JD Vance: “Well, Kaitlan, again, I don’t — I wouldn’t call it a war. Right now there is no active shooting. I recognize there is — there have been places where this has flared up. Major combat operations — again, major combat operations lasted for about six weeks.”