IRAN: At least 5 people have been killed and more than 50 injured after a U.S. airstrike affected a wedding ceremony taking place inside a house in Kohestak, a Baloch-populated area in the Makran region of southern Iran.
According to Iranian authorities, on September 1, a residential house in the city of Kohestak, located in Sirik district of Hormozgan, was affected by debris from a U.S. missile and shelling while a wedding ceremony was underway there.
According to the Iranian Red Crescent, at least 4 people, including a young child, were killed and more than 50 injured in the attack. Local authorities later confirmed that the death toll had risen to 5.
Kohestak is a coastal city located in Sirik district of Hormozgan and is among the areas connected to the western part of the historic Makran region, where a Baloch population also resides.
Historically, Kohestak and the Sirik region are located in the coastal part of Makran, which is considered part of Western Balochistan under Iranian administration in Baloch history and geography.
The area has been associated for centuries with Baloch populations, tribes, and Baloch coastal civilization. In the present era, Kohestak and Sirik are part of Iran’s administrative province of Hormozgan.
The U.S. Central Command confirmed new airstrikes in Iran on September 1, saying that the purpose of the U.S. operations was to target objectives linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that Washington considers a threat to U.S. troops and commercial vessels in the region. However, the U.S. military did not identify the house where the wedding ceremony was taking place in Kohestak as a target of its attack.
According to Iranian authorities and the Red Crescent, the attack in Kohestak affected the civilian population, while the U.S. attack resulted in civilian casualties in this coastal area of Makran, which has a Baloch population.
