Iranian Red Crescent asks ICC to probe US missile strike on wedding in Kuhestak

The Iranian Red Crescent Society wrote to the International Criminal Court requesting a thorough, impartial investigation of a U.S. missile strike that hit a wedding party in the town of Kuhestak, killing two women and two children and wounding 67 people, most of them women and children. The humanitarian group argued the attack may amount to a war crime under international law, which forbids attacks on civilians or disproportionate harm.

U.S. Central Command acknowledged media reports but maintained that it does not target civilians. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, via spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, rejected the U.S. claim and highlighted previous civilian casualties in U.S. operations. Iran’s UN envoy, Gholamhossein Darzi, called on the Security Council to condemn the strike as a grave violation of humanitarian law.

Although neither the United States nor Iran are parties to the ICC’s Rome Statute, the human-rights organization one outlet said Iran could still grant the court jurisdiction over incidents on its territory. The strike occurred amid a broader wave of U.S. attacks on Iranian coastal sites near the Strait of Hormuz.