In a significant development, Iran reportedly launched attacks on Tuesday targeting what it described as bases for the militant group Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan, as reported by state media. The move has the potential to further escalate tensions in a region already grappling with conflicts, including Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Confusion ensued following the announcements, with some reports mysteriously disappearing. If confirmed, any attack by Iran inside nuclear-armed Pakistan could strain relations between the two nations, which have historically eyed each other with suspicion despite maintaining diplomatic ties.
According to state-run IRNA news agency and state television, the attack involved missiles and drones, but Pakistan has not yet acknowledged the incident. Jaish al-Adl, a Sunni militant group founded in 2012, typically operates along the Pakistan-Iran border. While Iran has engaged in border skirmishes with militants in the past, a missile-and-drone attack on Pakistani soil would mark an unprecedented move.
Jaish al-Adl has been responsible for claimed bombings and kidnappings of Iranian border police in the past.
State media reports on the incident were abruptly removed without explanation, but semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies continued to run nearly identical stories on their websites. Press TV, the English-language arm of Iranian state television, later attributed the attack to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Iran announced that the strikes targeted a “spy headquarters and the gathering of anti-Iranian terrorist groups.” This comes shortly after missiles hit an area near the U.S. consulate in Irbil, Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, prompting Iran to claim responsibility.
The reported strikes in Pakistan allegedly took place in the mountains of Balochistan province, an area that has witnessed a low-level insurgency by Baluch nationalists for over two decades. Initially seeking a share of provincial resources, Baluch nationalists later initiated an insurgency for independence.
Officials in Pakistan have not provided immediate comments on the situation. Iran has long suspected Pakistan, with its Sunni-majority population, of hosting insurgents, possibly influenced by its regional rival Saudi Arabia. However, tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia have eased since a Chinese-mediated détente in March of the preceding year.
Late on Monday, Iran fired missiles into Iraq, targeting what it referred to as an Israeli “spy headquarters” near the U.S. Consulate compound in Irbil, and locations linked to the extremist Islamic State group in northern Syria. Iraq condemned the attacks as a “blatant violation” of its sovereignty and recalled its ambassador from Tehran, citing the loss of civilian lives in the strikes.
Iran launched attacks in Pakistan
