"This bridge was like our child," he said, fighting back tears.

AFP visited the site on Friday during a press tour organised by Iranian authorities in Karaj, a city west of the capital Tehran.

An official said 12 bombs had been dropped in the previous day's attack.

The two main pillars are still standing. The word "Iran" in elegant calligraphy still crowns the structure.

But the force of the blasts had sliced the bridge in half at its midpoint.

Further strikes then destroyed the ends of the bridge deck, and twisted steel beams and chunks of concrete now dangle over the void.

Experts say they do not know if the bridge can ever be repaired.

"We worked hard to assemble these parts. We cried, we sweated buckets," Yazdi said at the site, where the bridge had been due to open this summer.

Two cranes were still standing nearby show the work, which began more than two years ago, was unfinished.

The bridge had not yet officially been named and was known simply as B1.

"We considered this bridge our child and we were very proud to see it grow," said Yazdi.

In the valley below the bridge, families had been picnicking on the grass when the blast struck.

AFP journalists saw a villa and residential buildings with blown-out windows -- but no military installations.

According to the latest toll from the martyrs foundation of Alborz province which includes Karaj, cited by the official IRNA agency, the attack killed 13 civilians and wounded dozens.

"They (US and Israel) are attacking only the country's and people's infrastructure," said Hamed Zekri, a 41-year-old engineer.

"We worked on this bridge for two years... morning and night... In the end, our efforts were destroyed in three hours."

He told AFP he was "so saddened" by the bridge's destruction that he was at a loss for words.

- 'Tumbling down' -

Trump has bragged about bombing the B1 bridge, without explaining why it had been targeted.

"The biggest bridge in Iran comes tumbling down, never to be used again," he wrote on his Truth Social platform alongside video footage of the wreckage.

"IT IS TIME FOR IRAN TO MAKE A DEAL BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE, AND THERE IS NOTHING LEFT OF WHAT STILL COULD BECOME A GREAT COUNTRY!"

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X: "Striking civilian structures, including unfinished bridges, will not compel Iranians to surrender."

According to Iran's ISNA news agency, B1 was Iran's most complex engineering project, built using an "extradosed" system that supports the deck through both suspension cables and arches.

Its highest point rises 176 metres above the ground and stretches 1,050 metres in length.

The bridge's construction was part of a major motorway project aimed at reducing travel time between Tehran and northern Iran -- a popular destination, especially for weekend trips to the Caspian Sea.

In another post, Trump said the US military "hasn't even started destroying what's left in Iran".

"Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!" he declared

The Fars news agency published a list of the region's key bridges that could be "potential targets of Iranian retaliation".

Heading the list was the 36-kilometre-long Sheikh Jaber Al?Ahmad Al?Sabah Causeway in Kuwait, followed by the King Fahd Causeway linking Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

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