Islamabad, Pakistan CNN — Pakistan carried out a series of 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 neighbours 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 south-eastern Sistan and Baluchistan province as part of an operation called ‘Marg Bar Sarmachar’ — a phrase which loosely translates to “death to the guerrilla fighters.”
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.
Sistan and Baluchistan province’s deputy governor Alireza Marhamati said in an interview on State television that at least seven people had been killed following explosions and that the dead included three women and four children, who were foreign citizens.
“At 4:30 a.m. explosions were heard in a border village, several missiles were fired at the village,” Marhamati said. The deputy governor said another explosion took place near the city of Saravan, but there were no casualties from that blast.
Both Pakistan and Iran have long fought militants in the restive Baloch region along their 900-kilometer (560-mile) border but the latest incident marks a major escalation between the two neighbouring powers and comes as regional hostilities in the Middle East mount over Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. Pakistan on Thursday said it had expressed concern to Iran in recent years about the ‘safe havens and sanctuaries’ of Pakistan separatist fighters, referred to as Sarmachar, living inside Iran, and that they had shared evidence of the presence and activities of the militants.
“However, because of lack of action on our serious concerns, these so-called Sarmachars continued to spill the blood of innocent Pakistanis with impunity. This morning’s action was taken in light of credible intelligence of impending large scale terrorist activities,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said. Pakistan said it “fully respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” and that the “sole objective of today’s act was in pursuit of Pakistan’s own security and national interest which is paramount and cannot be compromised.”
Pakistan’s operation comes a day after Iran said it used “precision missile and drone strikes,” to destroy two strongholds of the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan’s southwest Balochistan province, according to the Tasnim news agency.
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