Defense News ,Pakistan & Iran :- Pakistani air strikes on Iran resulted in the death of nine individuals in a border region in the Islamic Republic’s southeast on Thursday, according to state media. This updated the earlier toll of seven casualties. Alireza Marhamati, the deputy provincial governor of Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province, confirmed the updated death toll and mentioned that two men were among those killed in the missile attack in one of the border villages of Saravan.
Initially, Marhamati had reported that three women and four children were among the casualties. Pakistan stated that it had launched precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province. Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, in a televised interview, stated that all the deceased individuals were foreign nationals. Iran’s Fars news agency, without citing sources, reported that those killed were believed to be Pakistani nationals, though their presence in the area was not explained.
Sistan-Baluchistan province, a predominantly Sunni Muslim region in Shiite-dominated Iran, has experienced ongoing unrest involving cross-border drug-smuggling gangs, rebels from the Baluchi ethnic minority, and jihadists.
Iran condemned the strikes and summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaire to protest and seek an explanation from the Pakistani government, according to a statement by foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani.
This incident occurred two days after Iran conducted strikes against "terrorist" targets in Pakistan, resulting in at least two children's deaths. Pakistan denounced the strikes, recalled its ambassador from Iran, and blocked Tehran’s envoy from returning to Islamabad in response.
On January 10, the Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) jihadist group claimed responsibility for an attack on a police station in the southeastern city of Rask, resulting in the death of one officer. The group, designated as a terrorist organization by Iran, had carried out a similar attack in December, killing 11 police officers.
Jaish al-Adl, formed in 2012, has been involved in several attacks on Iranian soil. The group claimed responsibility on Wednesday for killing a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Sistan-Baluchistan.
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