Pakistan Recalls Ambassador From Iran After Iranian Attack Kills Two Children
Pakistan’s foreign ministry says it has recalled Pakistan’s ambassador to Iran, after a Tuesday Iranian attack on Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan killed two children.
On Wednesday, foreign ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch added that Pakistan had requested the Iranian ambassador to not return from their trip to Iran. “Last night’s unprovoked and blatant breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty by Iran is a violation of international law and the purposes and principles of the charter of the United Nations,” said Baloch in a televised address.
A Pakistani intelligence report seen by France24 said the two children killed were a 6-year-old girl and an 11-month-old boy. Three women aged between 28 and 35 were injured. According to the report, three or four Iranian drones hit a mosque and other buildings, including a house.
Islamabad issued a condemnation of the attack late on Tuesday, referring to it as an “unprovoked violation of its air space” and a “completely unacceptable” violation of Pakistani sovereignty.
A statement from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps published in Iranian state media shortly after the attacks claimed that the strikes with missiles and drones targeted the “headquarters” of Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), a separatist Baloch group that claims to be fighting for the independence of ethnic Baluch areas in southwestern Iran bordering Pakistan. The statements were withdrawn shortly after publication and subsequently reinstated with no explanation.
Founded in 2012, Jaish al-Adl has conducted multiple attacks against police, border guards, the Iranian military and the IRGC in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province. Tehran believes that the group has safe havens across the border in Balochistan, facilitated by the porous border and Balochistan’s own ongoing insurgency.
The Balochistan attack came a day after Iran launched ballistic missiles at Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan and northeastern Syria, with the Erbil attack killing a local Kurdish businessman and his eleven month-old daughter after their home was struck by several missiles. The IRGC claimed responsibility for those attacks, alleging without evidence that it was striking a Mossad base and Islamic State training facilities in retribution for the bombing of a memorial event for Qasem Soleimani.