The Pakistani Air Force launched a series of attacks in the early hours of this Thursday, January 18, against what it identified as “terrorist hideouts” in Iran. The assaults, in which at least nine people died, occurred after last Tuesday night the Iranian Revolutionary Guard attacked what they claimed were bases of the Sunni separatist group Jaish al-Adl, in southwestern Pakistan, where two children died, Islamabad reported. The hostilities triggered a diplomatic crisis between the two neighboring countries and exacerbated the turbulent situation in the Middle East.
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Retaliation attacks and deaths. The conflict fronts continue to rise and affect several Middle Eastern countries.
Using explosive drones and rockets, Pakistani forces launched aerial attacks on the border province of Sistan-Baluchestan, in southeastern Iran, this Thursday, January 18. At least nine people dieddetailed the state media of the Islamic Republic.
According to a military statement from Islamabad, the targets were bases used by the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) and the Baloch Liberation Army associated.
“This morning Pakistan carried out a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts in the Iranian province of Siestan-Baluchistan. Several terrorists were killed during the intelligence operation,” the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
But most of the fatalities would be civilians, according to Iranian authorities. “Three women and four children died in the attacks, none of them Iranian nationals”, declared the deputy governor of the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, Alireza Marhamati, quoted by the IRNA news agency.
Who are the armed groups in the midst of the clashes between Iran and Pakistan?
The Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) and the Baloch Liberation Army partner, whom Pakistani forces say they targeted this Thursday, They are separatist groups that seek the independence of the province of Balochistanlocated in the southwest of Pakistan, but who take refuge in Iranian territory.
The recent offensive that Islamabad described as “precision attacks” and “coordinated” occurred just after the night of last Tuesday, January 16, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard launched bombings in southwestern Pakistan against what it claimed were bases of the Jaish al-Adl separatist group.
It is a Sunni movement that operates from the porous border between Iran and Pakistan and opposes the Shiite regime in Tehran.
The group is also backed by Israel, one of the Islamic Republic's greatest adversaries.
Two children died in the Iranian attack last Tuesday, according to Islamabad. An event that triggered the biggest diplomatic crisis between the two neighboring nations, when Pakistan withdrew its ambassador from the capital of the Islamic Republic and prohibited the return of Iran's diplomatic representative to Islamabad.
More retaliatory attacks are expected. A senior Pakistani security official assured Reuters that his country's military is on “extremely” high alert and would strongly confront any “misadventure” on the Iranian side.
While Islamabad and Tehran have for decades accused each other of harboring “terrorist” groups in their respective territories, these are the highest-profile cross-border attacks in recent years and come amid growing concerns about instability in the Middle East. East since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in Gaza on October 7.
The escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has already triggered other armed tensions in the regionwith clashes on the border of Israel and Lebanon between the Shiite and Lebanese group Hezbollah – backed by Iran, which acts in support of Hamas – and the Army of the Jewish-majority country.
Likewise, since the new outbreak between Hamas and Israel, Yemen's Houthi rebels, also supported by Tehran, have attacked commercial vessels in the Red Sea, which they claim are linked to the Jewish-majority country or its ports. Offensives in support of the group that controls Gaza and that have threatened international trade.
Given these events, the Armed Forces of the United States and the United Kingdom have already intervened against “objectives” of the Houthis in Yemen. But far from stopping their actions, this rebel group responded by attacking a US warship and warning that they will continue their assaults in the Red Sea against Israeli ships or those heading to ports in that country.
With Reuters, EFE and AP
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