Strikes in the Iranian capital on Thursday battered the iconic Azadi sports complex, home to a stadium that has been a cultural touchstone in the country for decades — hosting Frank Sinatra concerts, historic soccer matches and one of the most memorable moments of the women’s rights struggle in the Islamic Republic.
The Azadi is one of three sports centers in Tehran, the capital, that the municipality said were bombed, state media said. The strikes occurred on the sixth day of a U.S.-Israeli attack on the country that has killed Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials.
Any damage to Azadi, among the largest stadiums in Asia, will hit Iranians especially hard. It is the home of the national soccer team in a country that is passionate about the sport. The Azadi stadium was the site of the 2025 match that clinched Iran’s trip to the World Cup in North America this summer.
For decades, women living under Iran’s theocratic rulers have sought access to the stadium, which was only ever granted grudgingly. The Azadi was where a young woman, Sahar Khodayari, was arrested after sneaking into a match in 2019. Ms. Khodayari came to be known as “Blue Girl” — a reference to the jersey color of the team she supported — after she killed herself through immolation when she was sentenced to prison. Her death sparked protests in Iran.
The Azadi’s history dates back to the days before the revolution of 1979 that toppled Iran’s shah and brought the Islamic Republic to power. In 1974, Frank Sinatra crooned his beloved hits in front of tens of thousands of people at the stadium, in a performance remembered as part of a time when Iran was less isolated from the world than it has become after decades of authoritarian clerical rule and international sanctions.
Photographs and video showed the smoking wreckage of the stadium’s indoor complex.
It was not immediately clear who had targeted the arena complex. Asked whether the U.S. military had bombed the arena complex, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, Capt. Tim Hawkins, said, “Unlike Iran, we don’t target civilians but instead take all precautions available to minimize the risk of unintended harm.” Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ahmad Donyamali, Iran’s sports minister, called the attacks on sports facilities a “war crime.” The strikes on Thursday are among several that have hit sports and youth centers in Iran since the Israeli and U.S. assault began.
On Saturday, the first day of the war, the authorities said that an attack on a sports hall had killed 18 boys and girls as they were playing a volleyball match, according to the state news outlet IRNA.
A video of that apparent attack verified by The New York Times showed smoke rising out of the blackened exterior of a sports hall in the town of Lamerd, in the province of Fars in southwest Iran.
Sanjana Varghese, Helene Cooper and Leily Nikounazar contributed reporting
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