Iran claims strikes in Pakistan were directed at militant group

Iran says it bombed a militant group in western Pakistan. This is the third time they have bombed another country this week. They also bombed targets in Iraq and Syria before.

Iranian TV said that the attack targeted two places in Balochistan connected to the militant group Jaish al-Adl.

Pakistani leaders reported that two kids died and three got hurt.

Islamabad said the air strike was an “against the law” and warned it could lead to “bad results”.

The most recent air strike happened when things were very tense in the Middle East. There has been a long war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza, and the US and UK also launched air strikes on Yemen. This is because the Iran-backed Houthis have been attacking ships in the Red Sea.

On Tuesday, a bomb hit a village in the big border province of Balochistan in Pakistan. Tehran said it was going after Jaish al-Adl, a group of Baloch Sunni people who have done attacks in Iran and on Pakistani government forces.

On Monday night, Iran shot ballistic missiles at targets in the northern city of Irbil in Iraq, and the US condemned the attack.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they attacked an Israeli “spy headquarters” in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Four innocent people were killed and six were injured in the attack, according to local authorities.

Iran attacked places in Syria’s northwest Idlib province. This area is the last one where the opposition is strong and not controlled by the Syrian government. It has 2. 9 million displaced people living in bad conditions in camps.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards attacked Syria in response to a recent bombing that killed 84 people. They did this because it happened on the anniversary of the US killing one of their generals.

Tehran said it doesn’t want to be part of a bigger fight from the war in Gaza. But some groups in the “Axis of Resistance” like the Houthis, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and groups in Syria and Iraq have been attacking Israel and its friends in support of the Palestinians.

Pakistan is very angry because they say Iran attacked their land without any reason. It’s even more worrying that this illegal act happened even though Pakistan and Iran have ways to talk to each other.

Pakistan and Iran have a complex but friendly relationship. The attack happened on the same day that the leader of Pakistan and the foreign minister of Iran met in Davos, and while the Iranian and Pakistani navies practiced military exercises together in the Gulf.

Both countries have accused each other of sheltering violent groups that launch attacks across the border for many years. In 2017, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said they shot down an Iranian drone that was in their territory. And in 2014, Iranian security forces crossed the border to chase after militants.

Both governments are worried about the safety of their border which is about 900km long.

Tehran says Jaish al-Adl was responsible for last month’s attacks near the border that killed more than a dozen Iranian police officers.

Iran’s interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, said that the people who did the bad thing came into the country from Pakistan.

China asked Pakistan and Iran to remain calm and not do anything that could make the situation worse. Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry, said that China considers these countries as “close neighbors”.

Jaish al-Adl is the most active and powerful Sunni militant group in Sistan-Baluchestan, according to the US Director of National Intelligence office. Washington and Tehran both call it a terrorist group.