Pakistan Launches Airstrikes in Iran
Sudan Events – Sumaya Sayed
Pakistan carried out a series of deadly military strikes on what it said were separatist militant hideouts inside Iran, in the latest incident across their shared border that has sent tensions between the two neighbors soaring.
The new strikes mean both Pakistan and Iran have now taken the extraordinary step of attacking militants on each other’s soil this week at a time of expanding conflict in the Middle East and wider region.
Islamabad said Thursday its forces launched a “series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes” in Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan province as part of an operation called “Marg Bar Sarmachar” — a phrase which loosely translates to “death to the guerrilla fighters.”
It said the hideouts targeted in the operation were used by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), two militant groups fighting for greater regional autonomy.
In a separate statement on Thursday, the BLF said it does not have any hideouts in Iran and that no BLF fighters had been killed in recent attacks. The BLA has not yet commented publicly on Pakistan’s strikes on Iranian territory.
A “number” of militants were killed during the operation, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry added.
Tehran demanded “an immediate explanation” from Pakistan over the strikes, Iranian state-aligned Tasnim news agency reported, citing an official.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, who is serving as caretaker leader until elections are held, cut short his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The caretaker Foreign Minister, Jalil Abbas Jilani, who is visiting Uganda, is also returning home.
Ten people were killed in the strikes, Tasnim news agency reported, citing the deputy governor of Sistan and Baluchstan, Alireza Marhamati. Both Pakistan and Iran have long fought militants in the restive Baloch region along their 900-kilometer (560-mile) border.
