Iran says it has launched attacks on what it calls militant bases in Pakistan

A large billboard depicting Iranian missiles with writing in Hebrew and in Persian which reads ‘prepare your coffins’, hangs on the side of a building in Tehran on January 16, 2024, after Iran’s overnight missile attacks on multiple targets in Syria and in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region. Iran defended its strikes on January 16, saying they were a “targeted operation” and “just punishment” against those who breach the Islamic republic’s security.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Iran launched attacks Tuesday in Pakistan targeting what it described as bases for the militant group Jaish al-Adl, state media reported, potentially further raising tensions in a Middle East already roiled by Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Confusion followed the announcements as some of the reports soon disappeared. However, any attack inside of nuclear-armed Pakistan by Iran would threaten the relations between the two countries, which long have eyed each other with suspicion.

The state-run IRNA news agency and state television had said that missiles and drones were used in the attack, which was not immediately acknowledged by Pakistan. Jaish al-Adl is a Sunni militant group which largely operates across the border in Pakistan.

Reports were then suddenly removed without explanation, though the semiofficial Fars and Tasnim news agencies still ran nearly identical stories on their websites Tuesday night. Press TV, the English-language arm of Iranian state television, later attributed the attack to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Authorities offered no explanation of what was happening, though sensitive stories in Iran can suddenly disappear from state media.

Officials in Pakistan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Late Monday, Iran fired missiles into Iraq at what it called an Israeli “spy headquarters” near the U.S. Consulate compound in the city of Irbil, the seat of Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region, and at targets linked to the extremist Islamic State group in northern Syria.

Iraq on Tuesday called the attacks, which killed several civilians, a “blatant violation” of Iraq’s sovereignty and recalled its ambassador from Tehran.