At least three women and four children were killed in a missile attack by Pakistan on Iran's southeastern border, Iranian state media reported. "Pakistan attacked an Iranian border village with missiles," state television said, quoting Alireza Marhamati, deputy governor of Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan province. "Three women and four children were killed in this incident. All of them were not Iranian citizens," he added.
The attack targeted a village near the city of Saravan, on the border with Pakistan, he noted. Iran's Mehr news agency earlier reported "drone and missile attacks" in the restive region, saying "several" people were wounded. The missile strike came two days after Iran carried out strikes against "terrorist" targets in Pakistan that killed at least two children. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Tehran had targeted an "Iranian terrorist group" in Pakistan. He said the strikes were in response to deadly attacks in southeastern Iran by the Jaish al-Adl jihadist group, established in 2012 and blacklisted by Tehran as a "terrorist" organization. "None of the citizens of the friendly and brotherly country of Pakistan have been targeted by Iranian missiles and drones," Abolayan said.
Pakistan condemned the strikes near the two countries' shared border, recalled its ambassador from Iran and blocked Tehran's envoy from returning to Islamabad. On 10 January, Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for an attack on a police station in the southeastern city of Rasqqa in which a policeman was killed. The group carried out a similar attack in December, killing 11 policemen. The group said it killed a member of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. / BGNES
