Iraqi border crossing with Iran closed following deadly airstrike

A border crossing connecting Iraq with Iran has been targeted in an airstrike, with Iran’s state-run news agency Tasnim reporting one Iraqi civilian was killed in the attack.

The head of of Iraq’s Border Ports, Omar al-Waeli, announced the suspension of commercial traffic and passenger movement through the Shalamcheh border crossing as a result of the airstrike.

This decision, he said, came following an airstrike on the Iranian side, which resulted in the death of one Iraqi citizen and the injury of five others near the Iraqi border crossing.

Video circulating on social media from the scene of the border crossing shows billowing black smoke and damage caused to the building’s interior, with debris strewn around.

Usually, the Shalamcheh crossing is used by Iraqi and Iranian travelers to depart and arrive by land, particularly during holiday seasons and religious pilgrimage periods.

During the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s, the crossing became one of the war’s main frontlines. Iraqi forces used it as a key invasion route at the start of the conflict, and the area witnessed some of that conflict’s heaviest and deadliest fighting.

Source: CNN

-- Agencies