Trump Praises Hegseth for Iran Strikes Despite Deadly Wedding Attack

By Staff, Agencies

US President Donald Trump praised Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for the latest US strikes on Iran, despite one attack hitting a wedding celebration in southern Iran and killing several civilians.

Iranian authorities said two women and two children, aged four and 16, were killed when a US munition struck a home hosting a wedding in Kuhestak, Hormozgan Province, on Tuesday. At least 67 others were wounded, many of them women and children.

Weapons experts cited by AP and The New York Times said fragments recovered from the site belonged to an American air-delivered guided munition, most likely a Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW).

The Iranian Red Crescent has called on the International Criminal Court to investigate the strike, while Iran's UN envoy urged the Security Council to condemn it.

US Central Command said it was investigating the reports while maintaining that American forces do not target civilians.

Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, Trump told Hegseth, "You did a good job last night in Iran, by the way. You knocked the hell out of them."

He claimed the US was "winning that one very big" and said much of Iran's naval and air capabilities had been destroyed.

Tehran responded to the latest US attacks with ballistic missile and drone strikes targeting US military facilities in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the UAE, as well as Erbil in Iraq's Kurdistan Region.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) later said it had killed "a number of enemy elements" and destroyed several drones in a missile and UAV attack on Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base.

Kuwait said its air defenses intercepted incoming missiles and drones without casualties, while Jordan reported intercepting 10 of 13 ballistic missiles that entered its airspace.