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The United States is investigating Iranian claims that a US strike hit a wedding gathering in southern Iran, Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday, September 3, while insisting that Washington does not deliberately target civilians in combat.

Speaking at the White House, Vance said he had been briefed on the alleged incident but had no information confirming whether US forces were responsible. He also expressed strong scepticism about accounts carried by Iranian state media.

“I will say that the Iranian state media has not been a very good scribe about what’s happened in the conflict thus far. So I’m extremely sceptical of this,” Vance told reporters. “I know that we’re investigating.”

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He nevertheless stressed that the US military does not intentionally strike civilians. “What I can say with 100 per cent confidence is that, unlike the IRGC, the United States never targets civilians in combat,” he said. “We never will do that. We never have done that.”

Vance acknowledged that civilian casualties could occur during military operations, saying: “Unfortunately, obviously, sometimes things happen.” He said the US military investigates mistakes and uses the findings to improve its operations.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said a missile struck a family wedding in the Sirik area of southern Iran on Tuesday, September 1, with shrapnel killing at least four people and injuring 67 others.

Iranian officials said the dead included two women and two children, aged four and 16, while many of those injured were women and children. State media later reported that a 22-year-old woman had died in hospital, potentially raising the death toll to five.

The Red Crescent has called on the International Criminal Court to investigate the incident. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei described the reported attack as a “war crime”.

Separately, Iranian Health Ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said at least 18 people were killed and 142 injured in US airstrikes reported between the evenings of August 30 and Wednesday, September 2.

He said the reported casualties included people in Sirik and Khuzestan, four members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force in Kermanshah and three Basij members on Lavan Island.