“I Still Hear the Voices”: Wedding Guests Recall Horror of U.S. Bombing in Southern Iran
"My house was in a completely residential area. I don’t know what has happened to my life," Ali Mallahi, the father of the bride, said of the airstrike on his daughter's wedding that killed 5 people.
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TEHRAN, Iran—Hundreds of guests had gathered in two family homes in Kuhestak, a coastal village in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province near the Strait of Hormuz, for a wedding celebration on Tuesday night when the missiles struck.
“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,” Zeinab Mallahi, a guest at the wedding, told Drop Site News. “That sound follows me from night into day and from day into night.”
A projectile tore through the roof of one of the homes, leaving a crater roughly 1.5 meters deep in the floor. Another struck a date palm, sending it crashing into a wall. People began screaming and “running everywhere,” she recalled. “It was something I had only seen in movies. I had never seen a missile. I had never seen shrapnel. I didn’t understand what was happening.”
Four people were killed instantly: Four-year-old Amir Ali Karimi, 16-year old Mohammad Mallahi, 43-year-old Kolsoom Mallahi Nezhadnia, and 50-year-old Zarkhatoun Taheri. Two days later, 22-year-old Asieh Molaeinezhad, who had been critically wounded and placed in intensive care, died, bringing the death toll to five. At least 60 others were wounded.
On August 30, the U.S. began bombing Iran again, with attacks concentrated in the south of the country, after both sides had withheld strikes for weeks. Iranian authorities said at least 14 others were killed in strikes across Iran that night. Tehran responded by launching attacks at U.S. targets in Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, and Bahrain.
Ali Mallahi, a local fisherman and the father of the bride, told Drop Site that at least 350 people had gathered to celebrate his daughter Maryam’s wedding when his house was struck.
“I really don’t know what to say,” Mallahi told Drop Site. “This happened in a completely residential area. There were no military facilities around the house.”
As is typical of weddings in Hormozgan, the men and women were gathered in separate family homes separated by less than a hundred meters. Mallahi was with the men at his cousin Mohammad Rasoul’s house, while the women had assembled at his own. The explosion came without warning.
“My first thought was that a gas cylinder had exploded in my house,” Mallahi said. He rushed to check on the women, hearing a second and third explosion as he got there. “When I arrived, everybody was running in different directions.”
He continued, “For a moment I just froze. I didn’t know what had happened. I asked myself, did they really fire a missile at my house? What happened to my daughter’s wedding? What happened to my guests? My children, my wife, everyone?”
Eight people were admitted to a hospital in Sirik, while six others were placed in intensive care at the Hazrat Abolfazl Hospital in Minab. A further 26 patients were admitted to the hospital’s surgical wards, according to Pezhman Shahrokhi, a local health official. Of the six patients in intensive care, one was in critical condition and had been intubated. A total of 36 patients were later discharged after receiving diagnostic and specialized treatment.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) described the September 1 wave of strikes in southern Iran as targeting the “air-defense sites, radar systems, and maritime assets” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance claimed the U.S. was investigating the incident but added that he was “extremely skeptical” of the reports around the attack. “What I can say with 100% confidence is that unlike [Iran], the United States never targets civilians in combat. We never will do that. We never have done that, and unfortunately, obviously, sometimes things happen,” he said at a White House press briefing.
A Reuters investigation found that the wedding bombing was likely a direct hit by a U.S. munition and not a ricochet off another target.
“None of us had anything to do with politics. I don’t know international law, but I know what happened here is not right,” Mallahi said. “America is certainly responsible. My house was in a completely residential area. I don’t know what has happened to my life. My daughter’s wedding was left unfinished. My relatives are in the hospital. Even my sister has to undergo surgery because of her injuries.”
Hundreds gathered for the funeral on Thursday of the four victims killed on the day of the attack, including mourners, relatives, military, and civilian officials, according to state media.
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“I feel ashamed in front of my guests now,” Mallahi said. “They were supposed to come here and be with us on my daughter’s happy night. But now, whenever I see them, I think I will lower my head. They came here because of us, and some of them lost their children or their relatives.”
More than 3,000 Iranians have been killed since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on February 28, according to Iranian authorities, including more than 50 during a 60-day truce before fighting resumed in July.
Mostafa Taheri, a Red Crescent emergency worker, told Drop Site his team reached the site five minutes after receiving a report of the attack. They were already on alert because of U.S. strikes the previous night.
“What I saw was happiness and grief existing in the same place,” Taheri recalled. “It still looked as if a celebration was taking place, the wedding lights were still on.”
Multiple wedding guests were still trapped beneath rubble when rescuers arrived. Others had been injured by fragments. Taheri said it was the first time he had encountered such a scene.
“We could hear the wounded screaming,” he said. “We immediately started finding people, moving the rubble and transferring the injured.”
Residents and wedding guests helped rescuers clear debris and move casualties. Some of the wounded had injuries to their hands, legs, and heads. Others were bleeding heavily.
“I saw that a child had been killed,” he said. “When I asked how old he was and they told me he was four, it affected me deeply. Even now, two days later, I am still thinking about him.”
This story was produced in collaboration with Egab.
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