TEHRAN – Iranian investigators have confirmed that weapons used in a U.S. bombing attack on a wedding ceremony in southern Iran were American-made, with forensic analysis linking fragments to defense contractor Raytheon, officials said Saturday.
Mojtaba Ghahremani, head of the judiciary’s local branch in Hormozgan province, said projectile fragments scattered around the site of the September 1 attack in Kuhestak, Sirik, were examined using “advanced technical analysis tools and image data processing”.
Ghahremani said a military identification code, CAGE Code: 96214, registered on the fragments directly links the munitions to Raytheon Missiles & Defense, a major U.S. arms contractor. He added that the type of military thermal battery used is exclusive to flight guidance systems of precision-guided bombs operated by U.S. forces.
Other guidance and flight electronics modules were also found at the site, bearing electrostatic discharge warning labels with MIL-STD military standards.
British newspaper The Telegraph reported that a 500-kilogram U.S. precision-guided bomb directly hit the venue, leaving a crater one and a half meters wide in the reception room where hundreds of women and children were gathered.
The U.S. government has not accepted responsibility. Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that Washington is investigating, adding: “I’m extremely skeptical of this” and “I’ve been briefed to the extent that I know that we’re investigating”.
Ghahremani said the attack represents a clear violation of the Geneva Conventions, adding that a comprehensive legal case has been filed in domestic and international courts against the perpetrators and arms suppliers.