Iran attacks alleged militant bases in Pakistan

- Islamabad says ‘unprovoked’ strikes kill 2 children

IRAN LAUNCHED attacks on Tuesday in Pakistan targeting what it described as bases for the militant group Jaish al-Adl, potentially further raising tensions in a Middle East already roiled by Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Pakistan said the strikes killed two children and wounded three others in an assault it described as an “unprovoked violation” of its airspace.

Confusion followed the announcement from I ran as state media reports on it soon disappeared. However, the attack inside of nuclear-armed Pakistan by Iran threatens the relations between the two countries, which long have eyed each other with suspicion while maintaining diplomatic relations.

The attack also follows Iranian strikes on Iraq and Syria less than a day earlier, as Tehran lashes out following a dual suicide bombing this month claimed by the Sunni militant group Islamic State that killed over 90 people.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency and state television had said that missiles and drones were used in the strikes in Pakistan. Press TV, the English-language arm of Iranian state television, attributed the attack to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Jaish al-Adl, or the ‘Army of Justice’, is a Sunni militant group founded in 2012 which largely operates across the border in Pakistan. The militants have claimed bombings and kidnapped Iranian border police in the past.

Iran has fought in border areas against the militants, but a missile-and-drone attack on Pakistan is unprecedented for Iran. Iranian reports described the strikes as happening in the mountains of Pakistan’s Baluchistan province.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry issued a strongly worded rebuke of the strikes.

“Pakistan strongly condemns the unprovoked violation of its airspace by Iran which resulted in death of two innocent children while injuring three girls,” the statement read. “This violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty is completely unacceptable and can have serious consequences.”

AP PHOTOS Emergency services clear the rubble of the house of Peshraw Dizayi that was hit in Iranian missile strikes in Irbil, Iraq, Tuesday, January 16.

Syrians look at an abandoned medical facility in the village of Talteta, Syria, Tuesday, January 16, that was hit by Iranian missiles late Monday night, according to a voluntary rescue group White Helmets. Iran fired missiles late Monday at what it claimed was Israeli “spy headquarters” near the U.S. Consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil and at targets linked to the extremist group Islamic State in northern Syria.