Iran has said that it launched missiles at the “military bases of militant group Jaish al-Adl in the Kouh-Sabz area of Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Tuesday. According to its state media reports, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards used precision missile and drone strikes to destroy two strongholds of the Sunni militant group known in Iran as Jaish al-Dhulm.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, which immediately did not acknowledge the strike, later confirmed the attack on its territory, stating the strike killed “two innocent children while injuring three girls” and warned Iran of “serious consequences.”
The Jaish al-Adl militant group too confirmed the strike, stating Iran’s Revolutionary Guards used six attack drones and rockets to destroy two houses where the children and wives of its fighters lived. In a statement on Telegram, the militants said two small children were killed in the attack, while two women and a teenage girl were seriously injured.
This comes a day after Iran’s IRGC struck what it claimed was “Israel’s spy HQ” in Iraq. IRGC missiles also struck militant group Islamic State’s base in Syria, in retaliation for the dual suicide bombing this month.
Jaish al-Adl, or the Army of Justice, is a Sunni militant group founded in 2012 that largely operates across the border in Pakistan. Iran has fought in border areas against the militants, but a missile-and-drone attack on Pakistan would be unprecedented for Iran. The militants have claimed bombings and kidnapped Iranian border police in the past.
Meanwhile, the statement from Pakistan’s foreign ministry said neighbouring Iran violated its airspace, an action that could have “serious consequences” and was “completely unacceptable”.
However, Pakistan’s statement did not mention the location of the incident, nor the nature of the airspace violation, but said it had lodged a protest with Tehran and the head of the Iranian mission in Islamabad had been called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The responsibility for the consequences will lie squarely with Iran,” Pakistan’s statement said, adding that the incident had occurred despite the existence of several channels of communication with Iran. The Pakistani military’s public relations wing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, the reports later vanished from the Iranian state media though semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies still ran nearly identical stories on their websites Tuesday night. Press TV, the English-language arm of Iranian state television, later attributed the attack to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Authorities did not explain what was happening, though sensitive stories in Iran can suddenly disappear from state media.
