THE United States military will investigate claims that one of its attacks killed at least four people, including two children, at a wedding in southern Iran, Vice-President JD Vance said on Thursday.

A missile hit the ceremony at a civilian residence in Sirik on Tuesday.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei slammed the attack as a “war crime.”

Mr Vance said he was “extremely sceptical” over reports of the alleged strike, but confirmed the US would investigate.

“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,” Mr Vance told a White House briefing on Thursday.

He added: “I know that we’re investigating.”

Iran has launched fresh attacks on US bases in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates in response.

Iranian authorities say four people were killed in the missile attack and 67 others were injured. A fifth person, a woman aged 22 died in hospital shortly after.

The four people killed were named locally as Zarkhatoon Taheri, Kolsum Mallahi Nazhdnia, teenager Mohammad Mallahi and four-year-old Amirali Karimi.

In his remarks to reporters Mr Vance declined to offer a prospective timeline for the end of the US-Israeli illegal and unprovoked war, launched on Iran by the US and Israel on February 28.

The conflict has led to a surge in global energy prices and according to opinion polls, is increasingly unpopular at home.

Mr Vance sought to downplay the fallout in a White House news briefing on Thursday, including questioning the word “war.”

He said that he recognised that there have been places where fighting has “flared up.” But, Mr Vance added: “I wouldn’t call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting.”

The vice-president went on to accuse Iran of continuing to attempt to prevent the flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

He told reporters: “When you ask, ‘When will this end?’ you’re asking me a question like: When will the Iranians stop shooting at ships?

“I think the reality is, I don’t know the answer to that question. You’d have to ask the Iranians.”

Prior to the outbreak of the war, traffic flowed freely through the strait. But after the US and Israel launched its attack Iran closed the waterway to commercial vessels.