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 Zanjan, an industrial provincial capital located around 300 kilometres northwest of Tehran. 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 the ISNA news agency citing Ali Sadeghi, a provincial deputy governor.
Meanwhile, Iranian media said airstrikes have put a desalination plant on Iran's Qeshm island in the strategic Strait of Hormuz out of service, though the report did not specify when the attack took place.
"One of the desalination plants on Qeshm Island was targeted... and is now completely out of service, as it is not possible to repair it in the short term," the ISNA reported, quoting health ministry official Mohsen Farhadi.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said a strike had taken place there on March 7, accusing the US of a "blatant and desperate crime" launched from its military base in Bahrain.
Qeshm is the largest Iranian island in the Gulf, stretching for around one hundred kilometres across the Strait of Hormuz.
It has become a popular tourist destination in recent years for Iranians thanks to its rare UNESCO-listed rock formations and turquoise waters, but is also heavily militarised, analysts say.
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.
Similarly, there have been several attacks on desalination plants in the ongoing war, sparked by US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
Bahrain reported an Iranian strike on a facility on March 8, apparent retaliation for the US hit on Qeshm the day before Kuwait reported an Iranian attack on a desalination and electricity plant on Monday, which Tehran blamed on Israel.
The Middle East is among the driest regions in the world, with many countries dependent on desalination plants for domestic and industrial water supplies.
US President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to "obliterate" Iran's power infrastructure, oil wells and "possibly all desalinization plants." That would likely draw a tit-for-tat reaction from Tehran that would escalate the conflict dramatically.
Desalinated water provides 42 percent of drinking water in the United Arab Emirates, 70 percent in Saudi Arabia, 86 percent in Oman and 90 percent in Kuwait, according to a 2022 report from the French Institute of International Relations think tank.
Some analysts have warned that Gulf states would see an attack on their critical water infrastructure as a reason to enter the war directly against Iran. They have so far remained on the sidelines of the conflict, sustaining damage from Iranian attacks while hosting US bases used for operations against the Islamic republic.