Deadly US-Israeli strikes damage religious site in Iran: media

TEHRAN: US-Israeli strikes on Tuesday killed four people and damaged a Shia Muslim mosque and religious site in northwest Iran, Iranian media reported.

State television said the building of the Grand Husseiniya, a hall for Shia gatherings and mourning ceremonies, “was damaged following the enemy’s morning attack on the Ferdowsi street” in the city of Zanjan.

It added that “parts of the dome and minarets were damaged.”

The strikes killed four people and wounded 26 others in the area, according to ISNA news agency citing Ali Sadeghi, a provincial deputy governor.

According to the UN, at least four of Iran’s 29 UNESCO-listed sites have been damaged in the war.

These include the Golestan Palace in Tehran, the Chehel Sotoun Palace in Isfahan, the Masjed-e Jame mosque in the same city, and the prehistoric sites of the Khorramabad Valley.

The head of Tehran city council’s heritage committee, Ahmad Alavi, said last week that airstrikes had damaged at least 120 culturally or historically significant sites across the country since the start of the war.

He named Tehran’s Marble Palace, Teymourtash house and the Saadabad Palace complex, one of the most-visited tourist sites of the capital.

Zanjan is an industrial provincial capital located around 300 kilometres (200 miles) northwest of Tehran.