Pakistan said Wednesday that Iran carried out an airstrike on its territory that killed two children, after Tehran launched attacks in Iraq and Syria against what it called “anti-Iranian terrorist groups.”
Pakistan denounced the strike, near the nations’ shared border late on Tuesday, as “completely unacceptable,” saying it was unprovoked.
Iran offered no immediate official comment but its state-run Nour News agency said the attack destroyed the Pakistan headquarters of the jihadist group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice).
Formed in 2012, Jaish al-Adl is blacklisted by Iran as a terrorist group and has carried out several attacks on Iranian soil in recent years.
The strike came after Iran launched missile attacks on what it claimed were “Israeli spy headquarters” and “terrorist” targets in Syria, and in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.
The Iranian strikes add to multiple crises across the Middle East, with Israel waging a war against Hamas in Gaza in response to the terror group’s October 7 onslaught, and pro-Palestinian Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
Pakistan’s official statement did not say where the strike took place, but Pakistani media said it was near Panjgur in southwest Balochistan province, where the two countries share a sparsely populated border of nearly 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).
Hours before the strike, Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar had met Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“This violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty is completely unacceptable and can have serious consequences,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
It said the strike “resulted in death of two innocent children while injuring three girls.”
Diplomat summoned
Pakistan said it summoned Tehran’s top diplomat in Islamabad to protest the “unprovoked violation of its airspace.”
Late Tuesday, Iran’s Nour News agency posted on X: “Minutes ago, two important headquarters of the so called Jaish-ul-Adl terrorist group was targeted in Pakistan.”
“These headquarters were destroyed by rockets and drones.”
The group claimed responsibility for an attack in December on a police station in Rask that killed at least 11 Iranian police officers.
The United States has also labeled Jaish al-Adl a terrorist organization, saying the group “primarily targets Iranian security personnel” but also government officials and civilians with assassinations, kidnappings, and suicide bombings.
Tehran and Islamabad frequently accuse each other of allowing militants to operate from the other’s territory to launch attacks, but it is rare that official forces on either side engage.
“It is even more concerning that this illegal act has taken place despite the existence of several channels of communication between Pakistan and Iran,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.
“Pakistan has always said terrorism is a common threat to all countries in the region that requires coordinated action,” it said. “Such unilateral acts are not in conformity with good neighborly relations and can seriously undermine bilateral trust and confidence.”
Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Center, warned of the seriousness of the strike.
“Iran has staged cross-border operations against Pakistan-based militants in the past, but I don’t recall anything on this scale,” he said on X. “This plunges Pakistan-Iran ties — a delicate relationship even in the best of times — into serious crisis.”
‘Act of aggression’
Iraq recalled its ambassador from Iran on Tuesday, condemning as a “clear act of aggression” after deadly missile strikes by its ally on its autonomous Kurdish region.
Four people were killed and six others wounded in the attack, according to the Kurdistan security council.
Iraq challenged Iran’s claim that the strikes targeted Israel’s intelligence services in response to recent alleged Israeli strikes killing Iranian and pro-Iranian commanders.
It said it would lodge a complaint with the UN Security Council over the Iranian “attack on its sovereignty.”
Iran defended its missile strikes in Iraq and Syria, saying they were a “targeted operation” and “just punishment” against those who breach the Islamic republic’s security.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had destroyed the “Zionist regime’s spy headquarters in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.”
Iran has made support for the Palestinian cause a centerpiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
It supports Palestinian terror group Hamas and hailed its deadly October 7 attacks on Israel as a “success” while publicly denying any direct involvement.
Regional tensions have spiked since, with fighting also on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where Iran-backed Hezbollah and allied Palestinian terror groups have carried out daily rocket, missile, and drone attacks, at the same time as the war in Gaza.
Source » timesofisrael