In an expansion of hostilities in the region, Pakistan said Thursday it had carried out airstrikes inside Iran, a day after Iranian forces attacked what it said were militant camps in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said the country’s forces carried out “precision military strikes” against what it called terrorist hideouts in southeastern Iran. Iranian officials said nine people were killed, including four children, and Pakistani officials said the death toll from Iranian strikes included at least two children.
A senior Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Pakistan had struck at least seven sites used by separatists from the Baloch ethnic group about 30 miles inside the Iranian border. The official said air force fighter jets and drones were used in the Pakistani retaliatory strikes.
Pakistan’s strikes came a day after Iran’s surprise attacks within the borders of Pakistan and Iraq, which Iran said targeted militant training camps and a response to domestic terrorism. Iranian forces had struck inside Pakistan before, but Pakistan’s strikes marked the first time since the end of the Iran-Iraq War more than 30 years ago that Iranian airspace was violated by the attacks from another country.
In a statement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the attacks, calling them “unbalanced and unacceptable” and saying that the Islamic Republic “considers the security of its people and its territorial integrity as a red line.”
Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said nine people were killed in the attacks, including four children and three women. Speaking to state television, he said the people were from Pakistan, not Iranian citizens, and were killed when their homes near the town of Saravan, a few kilometers from the border Pakistani, were affected by the strikes.
But the Foreign Ministry also appears to be trying to defuse tensions. He called Pakistan a friendly neighbor, said Iran did not want to “allow its enemies to strain the friendly and fraternal relations between Tehran and Islamabad” and said he was distinguishing between the government of Pakistan, an ally, and terrorist groups operating within that country. its borders.
The strikes in Pakistan, the ministry said, were aimed at thwarting a terrorist threat. The ministry said that on January 16, the border task force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intercepted the plans of a terrorist group to infiltrate the border from Pakistan to carry out an attack similar to that perpetrated in the town of Rask in December. when 10 border agents were killed.
An emboldened Iran has used its proxy forces against Israel and its allies since the Gaza war began in October, following Hamas-led attacks on Israel. These actions, and now Iran’s attacks on other countries in the region, have increased the risk that the uprising ravaging the Middle East will grow. Iran has been trying to project strength after recent attacks within its borders left it vulnerable.
One of Iran’s proxies, the Houthi militia in Yemen, has attracted attention in the region with its attacks on ships in the Red Sea shipping lanes linking to the Suez Canal. The Houthi leader said Thursday that a direct clash with the United States would only strengthen the group and vowed to continue attacking commercial shipping.
In response to continued attacks, the United States, for the fifth time in a week, struck Houthi anti-ship missiles in Yemen on Thursday, highlighting growing volatility in the region and American involvement.
Tensions have also increased around Israel’s northern borders, where Israel has clashed with another Iranian-backed group, Hezbollah. Asked at a news conference Thursday about Israel’s efforts to counter Iran’s proxies rather than Iran itself, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to that premise. “Who told you we weren’t attacking Iran?” he said. “We are attacking!” »
Pakistan, struggling with political and economic turmoil, indicated on Thursday that it did not want a further escalation in its conflict with Iran. In a statement, Pakistan’s military called the two neighbors “brotherly countries” and said “dialogue and cooperation are considered prudent to resolve bilateral issues” between them.
Syed Muhammad Ali, a security analyst based in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, said in an interview that Pakistan could not have left the Iranian strike unanswered.
“A calculated and timely response was needed to refute Iran’s misperception that a surprise and unprovoked military attack on Pakistan would not produce a strong but calibrated and rapid response,” he said.
He added that both sides had a strong incentive to let tensions ease now that Pakistan had responded, “because both countries will gain nothing from further military exchange or escalation.”
In cautious statements released Thursday, Pakistani officials refrained from directly accusing Iran. Pakistan’s speech reflects Iran’s justification for its own strikes, saying Pakistan’s actions also only targeted separatists who had taken refuge across the border.
Pakistani military analysts hoped this would pave the way for diplomatic dialogue between the two nations. Waqar Hasan, a retired brigadier general based in Islamabad, highlighted the precision and care with which Pakistan had carried out its operations in Iran. “Pakistan and Iran must move forward,” he said. “I think the situation can deescalate now.”
After the Iranian strike in Pakistan, Iranian officials said the attack targeted militants who threatened Iran, but Pakistani authorities rejected this version, citing what they said were civilian casualties from the strike.
Pakistan denounced the Iranian strike as a blatant violation of international law and warned Wednesday that it “reserves the right to respond.”
Pakistan has long maintained that Baloch separatists, who have waged a low-intensity insurgency in Pakistan’s southwest province of Balochistan for decades, are hiding across the border in Iran. Iran has also accused Pakistan of not doing enough to contain militants who target Iranian security.
Sistan-Baluchestan, the province hit by Pakistan, is home to a Baloch and Sunni ethnic minority and is among Iran’s poorest regions. The provincial governor’s office told Iranian state television that Pakistani drones hit targets in villages near the border around 4:30 a.m. local time and four residential houses were destroyed. In the villages attacked, as shown in images and videos broadcast in Iranian media, crowds had gathered around mud-brick houses reduced to ruins.
Iran’s central government has long been in conflict with the Baluch and armed separatist groups that operate from the region and occasionally carry out terrorist attacks. Regarding such a group, Jish al-Adl claimed Wednesday to have assassinated a colonel of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on a road near the border.
Iranian officials have showcased their military capabilities in recent days in a show of force against rivals, such as Israel, and terrorist groups. Iranian forces conducted an exercise Thursday with dozens of fighter jets and drones, according to state media, over a southern region of about 3,700 miles, from the eastern shores of the Persian Gulf to the western shores of the Arabian Sea.
Viviane Néréim contributed reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
