Iran says US missile strike hits Shalamcheh border crossing with Iraq, killing two

BASRA — Iranian officials said a missile strike hit the Iranian side of the Shalamcheh border crossing with Iraq early Thursday, killing two people and injuring 11 others as Arbaeen pilgrims continued traveling into Iraq.

According to Iran’s state news agency IRNA, Valiollah Hayati, Khuzestan’s deputy governor for security affairs, said a U.S. missile strike targeted the passenger terminal at the Shalamcheh crossing. Hayati said the attack killed two people and wounded 11 others.

He said operations at the border crossing continued despite the strike, with relief efforts underway and pilgrims still crossing between Iran and Iraq.

Videos circulated by local residents, which 964media could not independently verify, appear to show explosions, fires and crowds of pilgrims fleeing the area. Some people in the videos claimed the strike hit an Iranian watchtower, while other footage appeared to show pilgrims continuing to enter Iraq after the attack.

The Shalamcheh crossing, opposite Iraq’s Basra governorate, is one of the main border points used by Iranian pilgrims traveling to Iraq for the annual Arbaeen pilgrimage.

Arbaeen is one of the largest religious gatherings in the world. It falls on the 40th day after Ashura, marking the killing of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the Battle of Karbala in 680. Millions of Shia Muslims from Iraq and beyond travel to Karbala each year, many walking long distances to reach the shrine where Imam Hussein is buried.

The reported strike comes amid a new round of U.S. military strikes inside Iran and renewed tensions after Tehran threatened to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and target vessels transiting the waterway without coordination.

In early April, an airstrike on the Shalamcheh border crossing killed one Iraqi traveler and wounded five others, hitting the travelers’ hall on the Iranian side of the crossing and forcing a complete halt to operations. It was the second strike on the Shalamcheh crossing in less than two weeks. In late March, an airstrike on the Iranian side wounded five truck drivers, including two Iraqis, and damaged several Iraqi trucks. That attack also led to a temporary suspension of trade at the crossing.

Earlier this week, a drone crashed into a farm in the Hawz al-Ashar area of Faw district in Basra governorate, the second drone to come down in the district within a week, a security source told 964media. On July 15, another unidentified drone crashed inside the container yard at the Grand Faw Port without causing casualties, and authorities again did not identify its origin.

Since the conflict began earlier this year, Iran and Iran-aligned armed groups have launched repeated drone and missile attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, U.S. military facilities, the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, oil fields, airports, Peshmerga positions and other sites in the Kurdistan Region. Community Peacemaker Teams–Iraqi Kurdistan documented 751 attacks between late February and late May, attributing them to Iran and Iran-backed Iraqi groups. Popular Mobilization Forces positions have also faced repeated airstrikes across Iraq, killing about 100 members, which the group attributed to the United States and Israel.