US-Israeli airstrikes hit major infrastructure across Iran on 2 April, including a medical institute more than 100 years old and a key bridge linking Tehran to the city of Karaj.
The Iranian Health Ministry said Thursday that the Pasteur Institute of Iran, founded in 1920 in collaboration with the Pasteur Institute of Paris, was heavily damaged in the latest US-Israeli attacks on the country.
The institute specializes in combatting infectious diseases and outbreaks such as rabies, smallpox, and cholera. It is also a leading hub for the production of vaccines.
An Iranian Health Ministry spokesman, Hossein Kermanpour, called the strike “a direct assault on international health security” and an attack on “a century-old pillar of global health.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei called the attack “heartbreaking, cruel, despicable, and utterly outrageous,” stressing it was “not merely another war crime, but a barbaric assault on basic human core values.” Over 300 health facilities have been damaged by US-Israeli strikes since the start of the war.
Washington and Tel Aviv also attacked on Thursday the B1 Bridge in Alborz – also known as the Ebrahim Raisi Bridge and recognized as the tallest bridge in the region.
It was developed with the involvement of the Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, standing 136 meters high and stretching over a kilometer across the Karaj River valley.
It is now severely damaged, images have shown.
Hellbound and Down 