Iranian missiles – seen here during a training drill – have hit Pakistan, Iraq and Syria in recent days. Image: REUTERS
Iranian strike killed children-Pakistan.
Pakistan, the third nation Tehran has targeted this week, reports that two children were killed and three more injured in strikes carried out by Iran on Tuesday.
According to a news agency connected to the Iranian military, Iran claimed to have struck two locations associated with the extremist organisation Jaish al-Adl.
Pakistan denounced it as a “illegal act” and threatened “serious consequences” if it continued.
This week, Iran has also launched attacks on targets in Syria and Iraq.
Iran said that those strikes were “targeted” campaigns meant to chastise those who jeopardise its security.
Iran’s missile strike on Pakistan is almost unprecedented. A community in the large, bordering province of Balochistan in the southwest of Pakistan was affected by the strike on Tuesday.
The foreign ministry of Pakistan filed a protest with Tehran after denouncing the “unprovoked violation of its airspace by Iran”.
“Even more concerning is the fact that this illegal act has occurred despite the existence of multiple channels of communication between Pakistan and Iran,” the statement read, describing the occurrence as “completely unacceptable.
” China called on Pakistan and Iran to exercise “restraint” on Wednesday.
Spokesman for the foreign ministry Mao Ning said, “We call on both sides to exercise restraint, avoid actions that would lead to an escalation of tension and work together to maintain peace and stability.
” Beijing regards both nations as “close neighbours,” she continued.
The US condemned Iran’s late Monday night ballistic missile strikes against targets in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil.
As Israel and the Palestinian organisation Hamas, which is supported by Iran, went to war in the Gaza Strip on October 7, tensions throughout the Middle East have increased as a result of the Iranian assaults.
Although Iran has stated that it does not wish to become engaged in a broader confrontation, in an effort to demonstrate support for the Palestinians, organisations under its self-described “Axis of Resistance” have been attacking Israel and its allies.
Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israeli soldiers have engaged in cross-border gunfire; Houthi rebels in Yemen have assaulted ships in the Red Sea; and Shia militias have fired missiles and drones at US forces in Iraq and Syria.
According to reports, Israel has carried out operations that have killed a commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria and a leader of Hamas in Lebanon, while the US has struck Houthi sites in Yemen and killed an Iraqi militia leader in an airstrike.
For decades, Pakistan and Iran have been engaged in armed conflict with separatist groups in the thinly populated region, which includes Jaish al-Adl.
The security on both sides of their roughly 900 km (559 mi) common border has long been a source of concern for both governments.
Tehran has connected the organisation to strikes near the border that occurred last month and resulted in the deaths of over a dozen Iranian police men.
Ahmad Vahidi, Iran’s interior minister at the time, said that Pakistan was the entry point for the militants involved.
Based in Sistan-Baluchestan, Jaish al-Adl is the “most active and influential” Sunni insurgent organisation, according to the US Director of National Intelligence’s office.