IRAN-PAKISTAN STRIKES, AT LEAST SEVEN KILLED IN RETALIATORY ATTACKS Both sides attack the same group of militants operating in the cross-border region
At least seven people have been killed after Pakistan launched airstrikes on Iranian territory early this morning.
The target of the attack is not known but the Pakistanis called the operation “Marg Bar Sarmachar”.
In Iranian Farsi, “marg bar” means “death to” and in the local Baluch language, “sarmachar” means guerrilla and is used by the militants operating in the cross-border region between the two countries.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry described the operation as “a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes”.
It said in a statement: “This morning’s action was taken in light of credible intelligence of impending large-scale terrorist activities.”
At least seven people, including four children and three women, were killed in Thursday’s raids by Pakistan, Ali Reza Marhamati, a deputy governor of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan province, told Iranian state television.
The incident follows Iran’s attack on Tuesday on Pakistani soil that killed two children in the southwestern Baluchistan province.
Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan have long regarded each other with suspicion over border attacks, each side blaming the other for turning a blind eye to the militants.
But while the seeming tit-for-tat exchange has stoked local tensions and spread fears of a wider regional conflict breaking out from Israel’s war in Gaza, both sides have targeted the same group of insurgents, located on either side of their mutual border.