Pakistan Launches Airstrikes on Targets in Iran

Facts

• Pakistan launched a series of missile and drone strikes against insurgent groups in neighboring Iran on Thursday, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry announced. Two days earlier, Iran claimed to have attacked militant bases on Pakistani soil, prompting Islamabad to recall its ambassador from Tehran in protest.¹
• Iran state media reported at least nine people were killed in the Pakistan strikes [with numbers varying per different outlets]. Pakistan suggested it had 'credible evidence' of an impending large-scale, cross-border operation in what it described as a terrorist attack emanating from Iranian soil.²
• Fighter jets reportedly targeted camps of the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) — a US-designated global terrorist organization — during the cross-border attacks without entering Iranian airspace.³
• The Pakistani strikes came after Iran reportedly launched missile and drone attacks on the headquarters of the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan on Tuesday. A day earlier, Iran claimed to have attacked an Israeli spy base in northern Iraq and 'anti-Iran terror groups' in Syria in retaliatory strikes.⁴
• On Wednesday, Islamabad condemned the attack on its soil — reportedly killing two children and injuring at least four people — as an 'illegal' and unprovoked violation of its airspace and warned of retaliation. Tehran, in turn, argued that the bombing had been necessary to protect Iran's national security with no intention of violating Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity.⁵
• Meanwhile, the BLA, reportedly operating in the border region since 2000 and launching attacks on Pakistani security forces and Chinese interests, declared 'war on the state of Pakistan' on Thursday and announced that Islamabad would 'pay a price' for its strikes. China called on Tehran and Islamabad to 'exercise calm and restraint' and avoid any further escalation.⁶

Sources: ¹Reuters, ²Al Jazeera, ³VOA, ⁴The Times of India, ⁵CNN and ⁶NPR Online News.

Narratives

• Anti-Iran narrative, as provided by Iran International. Pakistan had every right to carry out retaliatory strikes on Iranian soil after Iran blatantly violated its national sovereignty to allegedly fight so-called 'terrorists' on Pakistani territory. Moreover, Tehran has done nothing to prevent Baluch separatists from establishing safe havens on the Iranian side of the border. The violation of three states' territorial integrity within 48 hours makes it unmistakably clear that Tehran is deliberately stoking regional tensions over the Israel-Hamas war. The Iranian regime's irrational strategy threatens to trigger an all-out regional war, which could now also involve nuclear-armed Pakistan.
• Pro-Iran narrative, as provided by PressTV. Iran's attack against the Jaish al-Adl terrorists was the next act of self-defense after Tehran had already struck targets in Syria and Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region in retaliation for recent anti-Iran aggression orchestrated by Israel's Mossad. Moreover, the Iranian strikes came after Tehran repeatedly called on Islamabad to take action against the cross-border anti-Iran operations of the Jaish al-Adl extremists — who also have links to Israel. While Tehran respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Pakistan and all other states, it will not stand idly by if its national security is jeopardized.

Predictions