Iran war intensifies, raising fresh fears for civilian safety

CAIRO/WASHINGTON: A fresh surge in fighting between the United States and Iran has renewed concerns over civilian casualties, with Iranian authorities reporting deaths from recent US strikes, including victims at a wedding ceremony.

Iranian Health Minister said 18 people were killed and 108 injured in US attacks carried out across the country on Tuesday night. The Iranian Red Crescent separately reported that four people died and 67 others were wounded during a wedding near the Strait of Hormuz.

The latest violence has raised fears of a broader regional conflict after Iran launched missiles and drones at what it described as US military positions in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Iraq. Kuwait’s military said additional missile and drone attacks were detected early Thursday but were intercepted by its air defence systems.

Fighting resumes after period of relative calm

The escalation follows a period of relative quiet since the previous major exchange of attacks in July. Diplomatic efforts to restart peace negotiations have made little progress during the intervening period.

US President Donald Trump has warned that Washington could respond with further military action. The conflict has become politically sensitive in the United States, where it has faced domestic opposition and contributed to higher fuel prices.

Trump’s senior advisers are meanwhile seeking to prevent the confrontation from expanding before the November midterm elections, according to four people familiar with internal discussions. They said the White House could reassess its military approach after the November 3 vote.

Iran maintains defiant stance

Despite suffering significant military and economic damage, Iran has continued to reject pressure to back down.

The latest exchange has heightened concerns among neighbouring countries that continued US-Iran hostilities could spread beyond the two countries and put civilians across the region at greater risk.

The renewed fighting also threatens to undermine diplomatic efforts aimed at containing the conflict, while the reported civilian casualties have added urgency to calls for a reduction in hostilities.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply alarmed by reports of civilian casualties, including a strike that reportedly hit a wedding ceremony in Iran,” and called for an immediate cessation of military action, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

“The Secretary-General condemns all attacks against civilians. He recalls that all parties must respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution,” Dujarric said.

The deaths would be in addition to the 3,636 people documented as killed in Iran as of April 7, including 1,701 civilians, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), an independent Iranian rights group.

The U.S. has reported 18 military personnel killed and more than 750 wounded.

“We are aware of reports, which originated from Iranian state media. The U.S. military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC,” U.S. Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for the U.S. military’s Central Command, said in an email.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society released video showing debris strewn on the ground next to a building with a large hole in the roof, accompanied by still images showing people, some in Red Crescent vests, at a damaged building and a utility tower lying on the ground. Reuters was able to verify the location using satellite imagery, which showed the fallen tower was 136 metres (149 yards) from the damaged building.

The wedding incident recalled the blast at a school in Minab that killed 160 peopleat a girls’ school on the first day of the war.

The Pentagon has yet to issue an official finding on the Minab strike, which would be the U.S. military’s largest civilian casualty incident in decades. It may have been the ‌result of U.S. use of outdated targeting data, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Democratic members of the U.S. Congress have called on the administration to release findings of its investigation of the incident, but the report has not been sent to lawmakers.

U.S. defenders of the Iran war also point to civilian deaths that resulted from Iranian attempts to put down street protests that embroiled the country in December and January, before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. HRANA has put that death toll at more than 7,000, while Iranian exile groups claim the number is much higher.

Trump has cited an incentive for Iranians to overthrow their government as one reason for the war, in addition to seeking to halt Iran’s nuclear program and ending its support for militant groups abroad such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Iran has also responded to the U.S. attacks by threatening any oil tankers that transit the Strait of Hormuz without Iranian authorization, severely curtailing traffic in a waterway that before the war carried 20% of the world’s oil supply.