by In an expansion of hostilities sweeping the region, Pakistan said on Thursday it had carried out airstrikes inside Iran, a day after Iranian forces attacked what they said were militant camps in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said the country’s forces had carried out “precision military strikes” against what it called terrorist hideouts in southeastern Iran. Iranian officials said nine people had been killed, including four children, and Pakistani officials said the death toll from the Iranian strikes included at least two children.
A senior Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Pakistan had attacked at least seven locations used by separatists from the Baloch ethnic group about 30 miles inside the Iranian border. The official said fighter jets and air force drones had been used in Pakistani retaliation strikes.
Pakistan’s attacks came a day after Iran’s surprise attacks inside the borders of Pakistan and Iraq, which Iran said targeted militant training camps and a response to domestic terrorism. Iranian forces had attacked Pakistan before, but Pakistan’s attacks marked the first time since the end of the Iran-Iraq war more than 30 years ago that Iran’s airspace had been violated by 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.”
Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said nine people had been killed in the attacks, including four children and three women. Speaking on state television, he said the people were Pakistani and not Iranian citizens, and that they had died when their homes, near the town of Saravan, a few kilometers from the border with Pakistan, were hit by the strikes.
But the Foreign Office also appeared to try to calm tensions. He referred to Pakistan as a friendly neighbor, said Iran did not want to “allow enemies to strain the friendly and brotherly relations of Tehran and Islamabad” and said he distinguished between the government of Pakistan, an ally, and terrorist groups operating within of its territory. its borders.
The attacks 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 had intercepted a terrorist group’s plans to infiltrate the border from Pakistan to carry out an attack similar to the one that occurred in the city of Rask in December. when 10 border agents were killed.
An emboldened Iran has been using its proxy forces against Israel and that country’s allies since the war in Gaza began in October following Hamas-led attacks on Israel. Those actions, and now Iran’s attacks on other countries in the region, have increased the risk of growing turmoil gripping the Middle East. Iran has been trying to project strength after recent attacks within its borders made it appear vulnerable.
One of Iran’s proxies, the Houthi militia in Yemen, has drawn attention in the region with its attacks on ships in the Red Sea shipping lanes that connect to the Suez Canal. The Houthi leader declared Thursday that a direct confrontation with the United States would only strengthen the group and vowed to continue attacking commercial ships.
In response to the continued attacks, the United States, for the fifth time in a week, attacked Houthi anti-ship missiles in Yemen on Thursday, underscoring the growing volatility in the region and American involvement.
The Houthis launched two “anti-ship ballistic missiles” at a US-owned ship, the Chem Ranger, on Thursday night local time, but the missiles fell into the water, causing no damage or injuries, US Central Command said in a statement. a statement.statementalthough a Houthi military spokesman said on social networks that the attack had resulted in “direct hits.”
Tensions have also increased around Israel’s northern borders, where Israel has clashed with another Iranian-backed group, Hezbollah. When asked at a press conference Thursday about Israel’s efforts to counter Iran’s proxies rather than Iran itself, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu questioned the premise. “Who told you we weren’t attacking Iran?” he said. “We are attacking!”
Pakistan, which is grappling with political and economic problems, indicated on Thursday that it did not want further escalations in its confrontation with Iran. In a statement, the Pakistani 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 Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, said in an interview that Pakistan could not have left Iran’s attack unanswered.
“A calculated and timely response was necessary to disprove the Iranian misperception that a surprise and unprovoked military attack on Pakistan will not produce a strong but calibrated and rapid response,” he said.
He added that both sides had strong incentives to let tensions cool now that Pakistan had responded, “as both countries will gain nothing from any further exchange or military escalation.”
In statements issued Thursday, Pakistani officials refrained from directly accusing Iran. Pakistan’s narrative mirrored Iran’s logic for its own attacks, saying that Pakistani actions similarly targeted only separatists who had taken refuge across the border.
Pakistani military analysts were hopeful that this could pave the way for diplomatic dialogue between the two nations. Waqar Hasan, a retired army brigadier based in Islamabad, highlighted the precision and care with which Pakistan had carried out its attacks in Iran. “Pakistan and Iran need to move forward,” he said. “I think the situation can improve now.”
After Iran’s attack on Pakistan, Iranian officials said the attack had targeted militants threatening Iran, but Pakistani authorities rejected that account, citing what they said were civilian casualties of the attack.
Pakistan denounced the Iranian attack as a flagrant 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-level insurgency in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province for decades, have hideouts across the border from Iran. Iran also accused Pakistan of not doing enough to contain militants who have attacked Iranian security.
Sistan-Balochistan, the province hit by Pakistan, is home to a Baloch and Sunni ethnic minority and is among the most impoverished areas of Iran. The province’s 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 that four residential homes had been destroyed. .
Iran’s central government has long clashed with ethnic Baloch and armed separatist militant groups that operate from the area and occasionally carry out terrorist attacks. Regarding that group, Jish al-Adl claimed on Wednesday to have killed a Revolutionary Guard colonel near the border.
Iranian officials have highlighted their military capabilities in recent days in a show of force. Iranian forces carried out an exercise with dozens of fighter jets and drones on Thursday, according to state media, from the eastern shores of the Persian Gulf to the western shores of the Sea of Oman.
Vivian Nereim contributed reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
