‘I Still Hear the Screams’: Iranian Survivors Recount U.S. Wedding Massacre
KUHESTAK, Iran – The shoes were scattered across the ground. Children were among the wounded. A wedding celebration had been turned into a scene of devastation.
Days after a terrorist U.S. strike hit a wedding gathering in Kuhestak, a small coastal town in southern Iran, the signs of the blast remained etched across the town — damaged buildings, piles of rubble and belongings left behind as residents fled the chaos.
On the evening of September 1, around 350 people had gathered in Kuhestak, in Sirik county on the east coast of Iran’s Hormozgan province, for the wedding of Maryam Mallahi and Ziaeddin. In keeping with local tradition, the celebration was held in two houses: the men gathered at a relative’s home, while the women waited at the bride’s family home.
At around 9 pm, as the United States launched a new wave of
terrorist attacks across southern Iran, a series of explosions was heard in Kuhestak. A telecommunications tower stood less than 200 meters from the wedding venue. Moments later, a projectile struck the house where the women and children had gathered, tearing through its roof.
“We were talking to some of the other guests when suddenly we heard a terrifying sound,” Majid, 41, who was at the men’s gathering nearby, said.
“At first, we thought it was an earthquake. We panicked and ran outside. We rushed towards the bride’s house and saw smoke and fire everywhere. I pulled my wife and my five-year-old child from beneath the rubble. Screams were coming from every direction. There was blood everywhere, and everyone was desperately trying to help the wounded.”
Mina, one of the guests, was among the women trapped inside. “We were eating ice cream. You know, the weather is still very hot in Hormozgan at this time of year. We were waiting for the bride and groom to arrive when suddenly we heard a terrifying explosion somewhere near the house,” she said.
“Bricks and pieces of the ceiling and walls suddenly came down on us. Everyone was screaming. Everyone was calling for help. Nobody knew what had happened. I was trapped beneath the rubble. I was lucky to survive.”
Zahra, 19, another of those wounded, recalled: “Every carpet in the house was stained with blood. The shoes, the serving dishes and the lights they had put up for the wedding all had blood on them.”
“There was dust and smoke everywhere. Someone was shouting, someone was screaming. People were coming out one by one, some with blood all over their faces,” local resident Suleiman Zakiri Fard said.
Sasan Zarei, a local vendor, said that he rushed to the site after learning the home of local resident Ali Mallahi had been hit.
“We rushed to help, and recovered people and stuff from under the rubble. Most of the injured were kids. The scenes were very heartbreaking. The shoes had been scattered everywhere. One of the kids had their lungs torn out. They are now hospitalized.”
A Red Crescent worker who arrived minutes after the attack said those who had escaped the building and people from surrounding homes were already trying to free the injured.
“They were so terrified that we had to spend some of our time and energy calming them down,” he said.
Iranian authorities identified the victims as Amir Ali Karimi, 4; Muhammad Mallahi, 16; Kulthum Mallahi Nezhadnia, 43; and Zarkhatun Taheri, 50. A fifth person, a 22-year-old woman, died in hospital two days later.
An analysis by Reuters of verified images and videos found that the explosion at the wedding was caused by a direct hit from a U.S. munition rather than a ricochet from another target.
FRANCE 24 geolocated the building and found it was more than 135 meters from the communications tower, with photographs showing a hole in the roof consistent with a direct hit.
As the death toll mounted, American leaders displayed the same callous disregard for civilian life that has marked their response to previous atrocities.
President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and other U.S. officials have thuggishly refused to accept any responsibility for the attack, dismissing accounts of civilian casualties as “Iranian propaganda” and offering no condolences to the families of the victims.
The brazen denial mirrors Washington’s response to the September 2 terrorist bombing of the Minab school, which killed more than 160 mostly children and teachers. U.S. officials, when pressed on the school attack, issued boilerplate statements about “targeting military objectives” and refused to acknowledge the civilian toll.
Trump, who has maintained a belligerent posture toward Iran throughout his presidency, made no mention of the wedding victims in his public remarks following the strike. Vance, meanwhile, dismissed reports of civilian casualties as “exaggerated” and suggested Iran was fabricating victims to garner sympathy.
The Kuhestak attack is far from an isolated incident. The United States has a long and documented history of striking wedding celebrations across the region, with officials routinely denying responsibility or offering hollow expressions of regret years later.
In 2008, a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province hit a wedding party, killing at least 40 civilians — including the bride. The U.S. military initially claimed it had targeted a militant gathering, only to acknowledge years later that the bombing had been a mistake.
In 2014, a U.S. drone strike in Yemen’s Al-Bayda governorate struck a wedding convoy, killing at least 14 people. Then-President Barack Obama offered condolences — but only after being forced to acknowledge the attack by international pressure.
In 2021, a U.S. drone strike in Kabul killed 10 civilians, including seven children, in what the Pentagon initially described as a “righteous strike” on a Daesh-K vehicle. It was later admitted to be a tragic error, but no one was held accountable.
Ali Mallahi, the bride’s father and owner of the house, said: “The first explosion completely destroyed the single-storey house and left it inhabitable. The second struck the courtyard, damaging a car and other parts of the property. The house is not a home any more. It is gone.”
Zeinab Mallahi, a wedding guest, said: “I still hear the voices of the women who were ululating, and then suddenly the roof of the living room and the walls came down on us. That sound follows me from night into day and from day into night.”
“We were talking to some of the other guests when suddenly we heard a terrifying sound,” Majid, 41, who was at the men’s gathering nearby, said.
“At first, we thought it was an earthquake. We panicked and ran outside. We rushed towards the bride’s house and saw smoke and fire everywhere. I pulled my wife and my five-year-old child from beneath the rubble. Screams were coming from every direction. There was blood everywhere, and everyone was desperately trying to help the wounded.”
Mina, one of the guests, was among the women trapped inside. “We were eating ice cream. You know, the weather is still very hot in Hormozgan at this time of year. We were waiting for the bride and groom to arrive when suddenly we heard a terrifying explosion somewhere near the house,” she said.
“Bricks and pieces of the ceiling and walls suddenly came down on us. Everyone was screaming. Everyone was calling for help. Nobody knew what had happened. I was trapped beneath the rubble. I was lucky to survive.”
Zahra, 19, another of those wounded, recalled: “Every carpet in the house was stained with blood. The shoes, the serving dishes and the lights they had put up for the wedding all had blood on them.”
“There was dust and smoke everywhere. Someone was shouting, someone was screaming. People were coming out one by one, some with blood all over their faces,” local resident Suleiman Zakiri Fard said.
Sasan Zarei, a local vendor, said that he rushed to the site after learning the home of local resident Ali Mallahi had been hit.
“We rushed to help, and recovered people and stuff from under the rubble. Most of the injured were kids. The scenes were very heartbreaking. The shoes had been scattered everywhere. One of the kids had their lungs torn out. They are now hospitalized.”
A Red Crescent worker who arrived minutes after the attack said those who had escaped the building and people from surrounding homes were already trying to free the injured.
“They were so terrified that we had to spend some of our time and energy calming them down,” he said.
Iranian authorities identified the victims as Amir Ali Karimi, 4; Muhammad Mallahi, 16; Kulthum Mallahi Nezhadnia, 43; and Zarkhatun Taheri, 50. A fifth person, a 22-year-old woman, died in hospital two days later.
An analysis by Reuters of verified images and videos found that the explosion at the wedding was caused by a direct hit from a U.S. munition rather than a ricochet from another target.
FRANCE 24 geolocated the building and found it was more than 135 meters from the communications tower, with photographs showing a hole in the roof consistent with a direct hit.
As the death toll mounted, American leaders displayed the same callous disregard for civilian life that has marked their response to previous atrocities.
President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and other U.S. officials have thuggishly refused to accept any responsibility for the attack, dismissing accounts of civilian casualties as “Iranian propaganda” and offering no condolences to the families of the victims.
The brazen denial mirrors Washington’s response to the September 2 terrorist bombing of the Minab school, which killed more than 160 mostly children and teachers. U.S. officials, when pressed on the school attack, issued boilerplate statements about “targeting military objectives” and refused to acknowledge the civilian toll.
Trump, who has maintained a belligerent posture toward Iran throughout his presidency, made no mention of the wedding victims in his public remarks following the strike. Vance, meanwhile, dismissed reports of civilian casualties as “exaggerated” and suggested Iran was fabricating victims to garner sympathy.
The Kuhestak attack is far from an isolated incident. The United States has a long and documented history of striking wedding celebrations across the region, with officials routinely denying responsibility or offering hollow expressions of regret years later.
In 2008, a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province hit a wedding party, killing at least 40 civilians — including the bride. The U.S. military initially claimed it had targeted a militant gathering, only to acknowledge years later that the bombing had been a mistake.
In 2014, a U.S. drone strike in Yemen’s Al-Bayda governorate struck a wedding convoy, killing at least 14 people. Then-President Barack Obama offered condolences — but only after being forced to acknowledge the attack by international pressure.
In 2021, a U.S. drone strike in Kabul killed 10 civilians, including seven children, in what the Pentagon initially described as a “righteous strike” on a Daesh-K vehicle. It was later admitted to be a tragic error, but no one was held accountable.
Ali Mallahi, the bride’s father and owner of the house, said: “The first explosion completely destroyed the single-storey house and left it inhabitable. The second struck the courtyard, damaging a car and other parts of the property. The house is not a home any more. It is gone.”
Zeinab Mallahi, a wedding guest, said: “I still hear the voices of the women who were ululating, and then suddenly the roof of the living room and the walls came down on us. That sound follows me from night into day and from day into night.”