US strikes strategic railway bridge linking Iran to China: What to know
The railway bridge also links Tehran and other southern cities to Mashhad, where large crowds are gathering for the burial ceremony on Thursday of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The United States struck Iran’s Aq Taqeh Khan railway bridge, a strategic trade link to China, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Russia, in a missile attack Thursday morning, the Islamic Republic’s semiofficial Fars News Agency reported.
The cruise missile attack hit the bridge in the northeastern Golestan province, the agency added.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was a US missile strike, according to Fars. No casualties have been reported, but passenger and freight traffic on the line has been disrupted while engineers assess and repair the damage.
The disruption affected services from the capital, Tehran, and other southern cities to Mashhad, where large crowds were gathering for the long-delayed burial ceremony on Thursday for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February.
