IRAN-PAK CONFLICT: Pakistan conducts ‘precision military strikes’ against ‘terrorist’ hideouts in Iran

AGENCIES / WEB DESK

Pakistan has targeted what it called ‘terrorist hideouts’ inside the Iranian border after Iran launched a strike in Balochistan that left two children dead and injured three girls.

“This morning Pakistan undertook a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts in Siestan-o-Baluchistan province of Iran,” the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Thursday. 

The statement said a number of terrorists were killed during the intelligence-based operation — codenamed “Marg Bar Sarmachar”.

The development came after Tehran claimed it launched “missile and drone” targeting the Jaish al-Adl group’s headquarters in Balochistan’s “Green Mountain” area. 

Pakistan denounced the strike near the nations’ shared border.

“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,” FO Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in a statement on Wednesday.

In a statement today, the FO said over the last several years, in our engagements with Iran, Pakistan has consistently shared its serious concerns about the safe havens and sanctuaries enjoyed by Pakistani-origin terrorists calling themselves “Sarmachars” on the ungoverned spaces inside Iran.

Pakistan also shared multiple dossiers with concrete evidence of the presence and activities of these terrorists, it added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Iran launched a massive airstrikes targeting Jaish al-Adl, a Sunni militant group that largely operates across the border in Pakistan. Two children were killed and several others injured in the strikes near the Iran border. While speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos yesterday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, claimed that no Pakistani citizens had been targeted. The target was limited to members of Jaish al-Adl, he said. In retaliation, Pakistan has barred the Iranian ambassador from returning to Pakistan.