{"id":280242,"date":"2024-01-17T08:40:08","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T08:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=280242"},"modified":"2024-01-18T08:22:49","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T08:22:49","slug":"iran-strikes-militant-bases-in-pakistan-in-latest-middle-east-flashpoint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=280242","title":{"rendered":"Iran strikes \u2018militant bases\u2019 in Pakistan in latest Middle East flashpoint"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Borger \u2013 The Guardian Jan 17, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

A handout photo from Iranian state TV showing a Zolfaqar missile launched against IS bases in Syria. Advances in the accuracy of Iran’s missiles has U.S. defense chiefs concerned. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Iran has launched airstrikes on Pakistan territory, apparently aimed at a Sunni militant group, in the latest sign of a wave of violence rolling across the Middle East and beyond.<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s foreign ministry said two children were killed and three others were injured in what it called an \u201cillegal\u201d airstrike, and summoned Tehran\u2019s senior diplomat in Islamabad to protest against the \u201cunprovoked violation of its airspace\u201d. The ministry did not give more details of the strikes, but Pakistani social media accounts said missile and drone strikes had been aimed at the Balochistan province which lies along the 1,000km border between the two countries.<\/p>\n

In Iran, it was reported that the strikes were aimed at bases of a Sunni militant group, Jaish al-Adl, but references to the attack in Iranian media quickly disappeared. Iran and Pakistan have long had a tense relationship, in large part because of the activities of Balochi separatists and other militant groups in the border area. However, this would mark a significant escalation on the territory of its nuclear-armed neighbour<\/p>\n

The strikes in Pakistan came less than a day after Iranian missile strikes in Syria and Iraq, part of a string of reprisals against Tehran\u2019s enemies in the wake of a double suicide bombing in the city of Kerman<\/a> on 3 January which killed more than 80 Iranians. Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for that attack. Is it unclear whether Tehran believes Jaish al-Adl is also involved, or it was just lashing out against foes to satisfy domestic calls for vengeance.<\/p>\n

The Iranian reprisal attacks over the Kerman attack appear to have no direct connection with the Gaza war, but have come at a time when that conflict is already spreading instability across the region.<\/p>\n

Attacks on Red Sea shipping<\/a> by Houthi rebels acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, led to the US and allies carrying out airstrikes<\/a> for the first time in Yemen, aimed at Houthi positions.<\/p>\n

The US launched a new strike against the Houthis on Tuesday, hitting anti-ship missiles in what was the third assault on the Iranian-backed group in recent days. In the latest attack on Red Sea shipping, a Greek-owned cargo ship was hit by a missile off the coast of Yemen on Tuesday as it headed to the Suez canal. Greek officials said the Zografia, which remained navigable, had been sailing from Vietnam to Israel. No injuries were reported.<\/p>\n

The Biden administration is expected to announce plans to redesignate the Houthis as specially designated global terrorists on Wednesday, according to reports in US media.<\/p>\n

The US delisted the Houthis as both foreign terrorist organisations and as specially designated global terrorists in February 2021, in an effort to make it easier to get humanitarian aid into Yemen.<\/p>\n

Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, which was triggered by a Hamas attack on Israel which killed hundreds of civilians, the Iranian-back Hezbollah movement in Lebanon has also fired rockets regularly into northern Israel and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have struck back at southern Lebanon, sometimes with airstrikes.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met Pakistan\u2019s caretaker prime minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos in Switzerland on Tuesday, but it was not clear what they discussed at the meeting.<\/p>\n

Baluch nationalists have fought a low-intensity insurgency in Balochistan for more than two decades, which has developed into a bid for independence. Iran has long suspected Pakistan of providing a haven for the insurgents and fomenting instability on Iran\u2019s south-eastern border, possibly in coordination with Saudi Arabia, Tehran\u2019s arch rival.<\/p>\n

Baluch militants have also crossed from Iran to carry out attacks inside Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Iran and Saudi Arabia reached a Chinese-mediated detente in March last year, easing tensions. However, in April 2023, one such attack killed four Pakistani soldiers.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Iran fired missiles into northern Syria saying it was targeting IS bases, and into Iraq, aiming at what it claimed was an \u201cIsraeli espionage headquarters\u201d and \u201cterrorist groups\u201d near the US consulate compound in Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Iraq called the attacks<\/a>, which killed several civilians, a \u201cblatant violation\u201d of Iraq\u2019s sovereignty, recalled its ambassador from Tehran, and threatened to take Iran to the UN security council.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The missile strikes on alleged \u2018militant bases\u2019 in neighbouring Pakistan follow earlier strikes on bases Tehran claims were run by militants or Mossad in Syria and Iraq <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Iran"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=280242"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280246,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280242\/revisions\/280246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=280242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=280242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=280242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}