[UPDATE] Reuters weapons experts say a US munition made a direct hit on the Iranian wedding house that killed 5

Vice President JD Vance says the US is investigating but is "extremely skeptical" of the toll, which came from the Iranian Red Crescent, not the government.

Four weapons experts who reviewed verified photos and video of the site at Kuhestak, in Sirik county near the Strait of Hormuz, told Reuters the damage points to a munition that detonated on or just above the roof of the house — a direct hit, not stray fragments. Trevor Ball, a former US Army ordnance disposal technician, identified debris consistent with a Joint Standoff Weapon, a US air-dropped glide bomb. Gareth Collett, a retired British Army brigadier who specialized in explosives engineering, said the evidence "leans towards a US 500 lb air-dropped munition" rather than an Iranian air-defense missile. The house sits about 112 meters from a telecommunications tower the US also hit that night, Tuesday, Sept. 1. The experts said the blast pattern is inconsistent with fragments carrying that far. The Iranian Red Crescent Society says five people were killed — four at the scene, and a 22-year-old woman who later died in hospital — and 67 were wounded. Asked about it Thursday (Sept. 3), Vance said: "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... (TS: The casualty figures came from the Iranian Red Crescent Society, a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, not state media.) sometimes things happen." He added that he did not think the US had "any information one way or the other." CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said the command is aware of the reports and that the US military "never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC," but would not say whether a formal investigation has been opened.

PREVIOUSLY

Feb. 28 — A US strike near Minab hit a school compound after outdated coordinates tied it to an IRGC naval base, killing at least 156 people, most of them children.
Mar. — Nearly every Senate Democrat demanded a Pentagon investigation of Minab; the inquiry reportedly concluded in April and has never been published.
Sept. 1 — A US strike package hit IRGC air defense, radar, maritime and communications sites; a house hosting a wedding in Kuhestak was destroyed, and the Red Crescent reported four dead and dozens hurt.
Sept. 2 — A wounded 22-year-old woman died in hospital, raising the toll to five, and early visual analysis began pointing to a US missile.

What this strike has and has not set in motion:

Iran's Red Crescent filed a letter with the International Criminal Court on Thursday (Sept. 3) urging a war-crimes investigation — the first such claim it has filed against the US military.
Iran's health ministry counted 18 killed and 108 wounded across all US strikes that same Tuesday (Sept. 1), meaning the wedding house accounted for more than a quarter of the day's dead.
No senator or House member has sent a letter, sought a hearing, or filed a resolution over the Kuhestak strike.

ContextThe wedding was hit Tuesday, Sept. 1. Reuters published its analysis two days later, on Thursday, Sept. 3. It is the second US strike on a civilian gathering in this corner of Iran during the war. On Feb. 28, a strike near Minab — about 23 miles from Kuhestak — hit a school compound. Outdated coordinates had flagged the site as part of an adjacent naval base run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's separate military branch. That strike killed at least 156 people, most of them schoolchildren, roughly 30 times the toll at Kuhestak. Nearly every Senate Democrat demanded an investigation from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Pentagon inquiry finished in April. Five months later, its findings remain unreleased. Iran says 3,636 people have died since the war began, including 1,701 civilians. Outside monitors have broadly confirmed those figures. Iran's Red Crescent has asked the International Criminal Court to open a war-crimes inquiry. Neither the US nor Iran has signed the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the court. So the ICC cannot force American cooperation without a referral from the UN Security Council, where the US holds a veto.