Pakistan has announced that it conducted airstrikes inside Iran in response to Iranian forces attacking what they claimed were militant camps in Pakistan. The Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that the country’s forces carried out “precision military strikes” against terrorist hide-outs in southeastern Iran. Iranian officials reported nine casualties, including four children, while Pakistani officials confirmed at least two children were killed in the Iranian strikes.
A senior Pakistani security official, speaking anonymously, revealed that Pakistan targeted seven locations used by separatists from the Baluch ethnic group about 30 miles inside the Iranian border. The official disclosed that air force fighter jets and drones were used in the Pakistani retaliatory strikes.
Pakistan’s strikes came after Iran’s surprise attacks within the borders of Pakistan and Iraq. Iran claimed the attacks were aimed at militant training camps and were a response to domestic terrorism. Iranian forces had previously hit inside Pakistan, but Pakistan’s strikes marked the first time in over 30 years that Iran’s airspace had been violated by another country’s attacks.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attacks, calling them “unbalanced and unacceptable,” and emphasized the importance of the security of its people and territorial integrity. Iran’s minister of interior, Ahmad Vahidi, reported that nine people, including four children and three women, were killed in the attacks. He clarified that the victims were from Pakistan, not Iranian citizens, and were killed when their homes near the town of Saravan, a few kilometers from the Pakistan border, were hit by the strikes.
Despite the tensions, Iran’s Foreign Ministry referred to Pakistan as a friendly neighbor and expressed a desire to maintain amicable relations. The ministry also distinguished between the government of Pakistan and terrorist groups operating within its borders.
The strikes in Pakistan were intended to thwart a terrorist threat. The ministry revealed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had intercepted a terrorist group’s plans to infiltrate the border from Pakistan in order to carry out an attack similar to one in the city of Rask in December.
Iran has been using its proxy forces against Israel and its allies since the war in Gaza began in October. These actions, along with the recent attacks on other countries in the region, have heightened the risk of upheaval in the area.
2024-01-18 16:50:23
Article from www.nytimes.com