New Delhi: Pakistan has bombed Baluchi separatist camps in Iran, in a counter-attack to Iran’s earlier airstrike on Pakistani territory, Reuters reported citing a senior intelligence official. The official said that Pakistan had targeted the bases of Baluchi rebels who had been carrying out cross-border attacks on Pakistan. The Pakistani strikes, however, were not officially confirmed by the authorities, while Iranian media reported that several missiles had landed in a village in the Sistan-Baluchistan province that borders Pakistan.
The Iranian media said that three women and four children, all non-Iranians, had been killed in the attack. The incident has triggered a diplomatic crisis between the two neighbours, who have long had strained relations over security and sectarian issues.
Iran had claimed on Tuesday that it had attacked the bases of Jaish al-Adl, a Sunni militant group that operates from Pakistan and has links to Israel. Iran had accused the group of being behind several attacks inside Iran. Pakistan had denied Iran’s claim and said that the Iranian strike had killed two children and injured three others in an “unprovoked violation” of its sovereignty.
Pakistan’s foreign minister Jalil Abbas Jilani had called his Iranian counterpart and lodged a strong protest over the attack, saying that it was “a serious breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty, international law and the spirit of bilateral relations”. Pakistan had also recalled its ambassador from Iran and blocked the Iranian envoy from returning to Islamabad.
The escalation of the conflict between Iran and Pakistan comes at a time when the region is already witnessing heightened tensions, with Israel and Hamas engaged in a war in Gaza. Iran, which supports Hamas and other militant groups in the region, has also carried out strikes on Iraq and Syria in recent days, after a twin suicide bombing by the Islamic State killed more than 90 people in Iran.
Iran has said that it does not want to get involved in a wider war, but has vowed to defend itself against any aggression.