Pakistan air force carries out retaliatory strikes in Iran, targeting Pakistani insurgents

PTI, Jan 18, 2024, 10:38 AM IST

Pakistan on Thursday said that the country’s air force struck terrorist hideouts in Iran’s Siestan-Balochistan province, a day after Islamabad recalled its ambassador from Tehran in the wake of Iranian missile and drone strikes in Balochistan.

”This morning Pakistan undertook a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts in Siestan-o-Baluchistan province of Iran,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Thursday.

It said a number of terrorists were killed during the intelligence-based operation — codenamed ”Marg Bar Sarmachar”.

Pakistan on Wednesday recalled its ambassador to Iran and suspended all planned high-level bilateral visits, hours after Tehran launched an unprecedented missile and drone strikes on what it said were directed at the bases of a terrorist group in the restive Balochistan province.

Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Baloch in a terse statement read out to the media on Wednesday said that the Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan who is currently visiting Iran may not return to Islamabad for the time being. Pakistan also reserves the right to retaliate to the provocation by Iran, she had said.

Two bases of the Sunni Baloch militant group ‘Jaish al-Adl’ in Pakistan’s unruly Balochistan province were targeted by missiles and drones on Tuesday, Iranian state media reported, a day after Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards attacked targets in Iraq and Syria with missiles.