\n Outside a home in southern Iran, family photos, appliances and household items were piled in a courtyard, pulled from the wreckage of what authorities said was a US strike that killed five people as they gathered to celebrate a wedding.\n<\/p>\n
\n The bride and groom had not yet arrived when the blast tore through the Mallahi family's home in Kuhestak on Tuesday night, according to relatives who spoke to Iranian media.\n<\/p>\n
\n But dozens of women and children had already gathered in the compound, waiting for the festivities to begin.\n<\/p>\n
\n The extent of the destruction was stark, according to AFP journalists who visited the area on Sunday under the supervision of Iranian authorities.\n<\/p>\n
\n The ceiling of one of the rooms had completely collapsed, and walls in a hallway had deep cracks.\n<\/p>\n
\n All of the windows had been shattered, while the kitchen area was in shambles.\n<\/p>\n
\n Abandoned shoes, many of them dressy women's sandals, were piled up in one room, while a gaping hole the width of a double-doorway was blown in the wall of another.\n<\/p>\n
\n Part of the building's exterior wall was blackened by fire.\n<\/p>\n
\n The dead included a four-year-old child and three women, one of whom died later in hospital, as well as one man, with nearly 70 people wounded.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Homes evacuated -\n<\/p>\n
\n Kuhestak, a small coastal town more accustomed to the sound of the surf in the nearby Strait of Hormuz, was rocked by the thunder of explosions as the US carried out a wider bombardment of southern Iran on September 1.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Sunday, workers were cutting away the remains of a telecommunications tower that was knocked down in the attacks.\n<\/p>\n
\n The tower, about 15 metres high, had stood near the town's port, and was about 100 metres from the house where the wedding was taking place.\n<\/p>\n
\n A technical and administrative building in the same complex was also seriously damaged.\n<\/p>\n
\n Many pieces of shrapnel could be seen in surrounding areas, including at a shop near the tower, and several houses have been evacuated.\n<\/p>\n
\n At the Kuhestak port, the pier and a large barge were also damaged.\n<\/p>\n
\n Iranian authorities have blamed the United States for the attack on the wedding ceremony, with the judiciary saying the US used precision-guided munitions and the foreign ministry calling it a \"war crime\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Washington has not accepted responsibility for the attack, but has said it is investigating and does not target civilians intentionally.\n<\/p>\n
\n US officials said the military had targeted communications and other military infrastructure in the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Outside a home in southern Iran, family photos, appliances and household items were piled in a courtyard, pulled from the wreckage of what authorities said was a US strike that killed five people as they gathered to celebrate a wedding. The bride and groom had not yet arrived when the blast tore through the Mallahi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-164679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n