Pakistan Launches Retaliatory Air Strikes into Iran, Kills Seven People
Pakistan has launched retaliatory missile strikes into Iran, reportedly killing seven people, after Iran carried out strikes in Pakistan late on Tuesday.
On Thursday, Pakistan‘s foreign ministry confirmed its strikes, which the Iranian media said took place around the city of Saravan.
Pakistan and Iran have long accused each other of harboring militant groups that carry out attacks from regions along their shared border.
It had fiercely condemned Iran’s strike on Tuesday, which struck an area of Pakistan’s Balochistan province near the Iranian border and which Islamabad said killed two children.
Iran insisted its strikes were aimed only at Jaish al-Adl, an ethnic Baloch Sunni Muslim group that has carried out attacks inside Iran, and not Pakistan’s citizens.
Pakistan said its strike was based on “credible intelligence of impending large-scale terrorist activities” and that several “terrorists” were killed.
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In a phone conversation, Ali Reza Marhamati, the deputy governor of Sistan and Baluchestan province in Iran, provided the death toll from Thursday’s strike.
He said that among the deceased were three women and four children who lived close to the border town of Saravan in Sistan and Baluchestan province.
He confirmed that there had been another explosion close to Saravan and stated that the deceased were not Iranian nationals.
The events of Thursday occurred one day after Pakistan pulled back its envoy to Tehran due to Iran’s attacks in Pakistan’s southern state of Baluchistan on Tuesday.
Iran said it hit locations used by a Sunni separatist organization with extreme tactics. Pakistan, which described the incident as a “blatant violation” of its airspace and said two children were killed, strongly condemned it.
Following the incident, Iranian state television, citing an unnamed official, stated that Tehran “demanded an immediate explanation” from Pakistan and vehemently denounced the attack.
