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Pakistan condemns deadly Iranian missile strike on its territory as tensions spike across region
By Jonny Hallam, Asim Khan and Helen Regan | Jan 17, 2024Pakistan has strongly condemned an Iranian airstrike inside its borders that killed two children, calling it an “unprovoked violation of its airspace” and warning of retaliation.
Iran said it used “precision missile and drone strikes,” to destroy two strongholds of the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl, known in Iran as Jaish al-Dhulm, in the Koh-e-Sabz area of Pakistan’s southwest Balochistan province, according to Iran’s state-aligned Tasnim news agency.
Tuesday’s attack comes after Iran launched missiles in northern Iraq and Syria Monday, in the latest escalation of hostilities in the Middle East where Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza risks spiraling into a wider regional conflict.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said the attack on its territory killed “two innocent children” and warned Iran of “serious consequences.”
It described the airstrike as an “unprovoked violation of its airspace by Iran … inside Pakistani territory.”
“It is even more concerning that this illegal act has taken place despite the existence of several channels of communication between Pakistan and Iran,” the ministry said.
Pakistan on Wednesday recalled its ambassador from Iran and suspended all Iraninan high-level visits.
“Last night’s unprovoked and blatant breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty by Iran is a violation of international law and the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,” Mumtaz Baloch, a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, said in a televised address.
She said the Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan should not return from a current visit to Iran and warned “Pakistan reserves the right to respond to this illegal act.”
China urged Iran and Pakistan to exercise restraint in handling their ongoing conflict after the deadly strike. The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday called on both countries to “avoid actions that would lead to an escalation of tension and work together to maintain peace and stability in the region.”
A spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs said the strike was “a matter between Iran and Pakistan,” but stressed India has “zero tolerance towards terrorism.”
The Jaish al-Adl militant group late Tuesday said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had used six attack drones and a number of rockets to destroy two houses where the children and wives of its fighters lived.
Authorities in Balochistan province told CNN two girls had died and at least four people were injured. The girls, aged eight and 12, were killed in houses that were damaged in the attack in the village of Koh-e-Sabz in Kulag, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Panjgur district, on Tuesday evening, according to the district’s deputy commissioner Mumtaz Khetran.
Khetran also said a mosque near the homes was targeted and hit in the strikes.
Koh-e-Sabz — about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Pakistan’s border with Iran — is known to be the home of Jaish al-Adl’s former second-in-command Mullah Hashim, who was killed in clashes with Iranian forces in Sarawan, an Iranian region adjacent to Panjgur, in 2018.
Last month, Iran accused Jaish al-Adl militants of storming a police station in the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan, which resulted in the deaths of 11 Iranian police officers, according to Tasnim.
Jaish al-Adl, or Army of Justice, is a separatist militant group that operates on both sides of the border and has previously claimed responsibility for attacks against Iranian targets. Its stated goal is the independence of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan province, which neighbors Pakistan.
Three strikes in two days
Iran said Wednesday it “only targeted Iranian terrorists on the soil of Pakistan” and that “none of the nationals of the friendly country of Pakistan were targeted” in the strike.
“We respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Pakistan. But we don’t allow our national security to be compromised and to be played with and we have no reservation when it comes to our national interests,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The strikes in Pakistan came a day after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched ballistic missiles, targeting what it claimed was a spy base for Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad in Erbil, northern Iraq, and at “anti-Iran terror groups” in Syria.
Iran said the strikes in Iraq were in response to what it said were Israeli attacks that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders, and claimed targets in Syria were involved in the recent dual bombings in the city of Kerman during a memorial for the slain Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani that left scores dead and wounded.
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