Pakistan has launched retaliatory missile attacks on neighboring Iran, two days after an Iranian attack strained relations between the two countries.
Pakistan said the strikes were against “terrorist hideouts” in the adjacent Sistan-o-Balochistan area.
Iranian media said that three women and four children had been killed.
Pakistan launched an attack in response to Iran’s strike, which Tehran claimed was targeting terrorist groups.
Both nations have long accused one another of providing sanctuary to extremist groups that operate out of regions close to their shared border.
Official military action on this issue between Pakistan and Iran is rare, though, and the two nations often maintain amicable, if tense, relations.
The strikes were confirmed on Thursday by Pakistan’s foreign ministry. Iranian media had first reported on them on Wednesday night.
Pakistan’s action on Thursday was described as “a manifestation of Pakistan’s unwavering resolve to protect and defend its national security against all threats,” despite the fact that Pakistan “fully respects” Iran’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Pakistan’s military action comes after it fiercely condemned Iran’s strike on Tuesday, which Islamabad says killed two children.
It had warned Tehran of “serious consequences” for the “illegal” action, banned Iran’s ambassador from returning to the country and also withdrew its own envoy from Pakistan.
Iran insisted its strikes were aimed only at Jaish al-Adl, which it labels a terrorist group, and not Pakistan’s citizens.
But an angered Islamabad questioned the strike taking place “despite the existence of several channels of communication”.
Earlier this week Iran had also attacked targets in Iraq and Syria.
The air strikes come amid a tremendous era of turmoil in the Middle East, with Israel fighting Hamas in Gaza and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacking ships in the Red Sea.
Tehran has stated that it does not want to become engaged in a wider confrontation.
However, parties in its so-called “Axis of Resistance,” which includes the Houthis, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and different factions in Syria and Iraq, have launched strikes on Israel and its allies in sympathy with the Palestinians.
Last week, the US and UK conducted airstrikes on the Houthis after they assaulted commercial vessels.
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