CNN –
Pakistan on Tuesday strongly condemned an Iranian airstrike within its borders that killed two children, calling it a “baseless violation of its airspace” and warning of retaliation.
Iran said it used “precision missile and drone strikes” to destroy two strongholds of the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl, known in Iran as Jaish al-Dhulm, in the Koh-e-Sabz area of Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province to the state-affiliated Iranian news agency Tasnim.
The attack comes after Iran fired missiles in northern Iraq and Syria on Monday. This is the latest escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, where Israel's ongoing war in Gaza risks escalating into a larger regional conflict.
Pakistan's foreign ministry said “two innocent children” were killed in the attack on its territory. and warned Iran of “serious consequences.”
It described the airstrike as an “unprovoked violation by Iran of its airspace… within Pakistani territory.”
“It is all the more worrying that this illegal act took place despite the existence of multiple communication channels between Pakistan and Iran,” the ministry said.
After the attack, nuclear-armed Pakistan lodged a “strong protest” with a senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official in the Iranian capital Tehran and addressed the Iranian charge d'affaires, saying “responsibility for the consequences clearly rests with Iran.” ”
The militant group Jaish al-Adl said late Tuesday that Iran's Revolutionary Guards used six attack drones and a series of missiles to destroy two houses where the children and wives of its fighters lived.
Authorities in Balochistan province told CNN that two girls died and at least four people were injured. The girls, aged eight and 12, were killed in houses damaged in the attack in Koh-e-Sabz village in Kulag, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Panjgur district, on Tuesday evening, according to district representative Commissioner Mumtaz Khetran.
Khetran also said a mosque near the houses was targeted and hit in the attacks.
Koh-e-Sabz – about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Pakistan's border with Iran – is known to be the home of Jaish-ul-Adl's former deputy Mullah Hashim, who was killed in clashes with Iranian forces in Sarawan, an Iranian region alongside Panjgur, in 2018.
Last month, Iran accused Jaish al-Adl militants of storming a police station in Iran's Sistan and Balochistan province, resulting in the deaths of 11 Iranian police officers, according to Tasnim.
Jaish al-Adl, or Army of Justice, is a separatist militant group that operates on both sides of the border and has previously claimed responsibility for attacks on Iranian targets. Its declared goal is the independence of the Iranian provinces of Sistan and Balochistan.
The attacks in Pakistan came a day after Iran's Revolutionary Guards fired ballistic missiles at an alleged Mossad spy base in Erbil, northern Iraq, and at “anti-Iran terror groups” in Syria.
Iran said the attacks in Iraq were in response to alleged Israeli attacks that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders, and claimed targets in Syria were involved in recent twin bombings in the city of Kerman during a memorial ceremony for the slain Quds commander -Troop Qasem was involved in Soleimani, which left numerous dead and wounded.
They defended the attacks as a “precise and targeted” operation to deter security threats, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a statement on Tuesday.
Iran's attacks will further fuel fears that Israel's war in Gaza could escalate into a full-scale war in the Middle East with serious humanitarian, political and economic consequences.
The attacks in Iraq and Syria were condemned by the United States as “reckless” and inaccurate, while the United Nations said: “Security concerns must be addressed through dialogue, not attacks.”
Iraq said it submitted a complaint to the U.N. Security Council and the United Nations on Tuesday. Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said there were no Mossad-linked centers in Erbil, in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Israel's relentless bombing of the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attacks has killed more than 24,000 people and caused widespread devastation, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, as civilians face the threat of imminent death – whether from an airstrike , hunger or illness.
The conflict has escalated hostilities across the region, with Iran's allies and proxies – the so-called Axis of Resistance – launching attacks on Israeli forces and its allies.
On Tuesday, the US military launched new strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, targeting anti-ship ballistic missiles controlled by the Iran-backed rebel group, a defense official told CNN.
A few hours later, the Houthis fired a missile into international shipping lanes in the southern Red Sea, hitting the M/V Zografia, a Maltese-flagged bulk carrier, the official said.
The strikes are at least the third round of attacks by the U.S. military against Houthis' infrastructure since last Thursday, when the Americans and British conducted a joint operation targeting command and control nodes and weapons depots used by the Houthis to launch missiles and drones attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea.
US troops in Iraq and Syria have also been repeatedly attacked by Tehran's proxies with missiles and drones. Last week, the U.S. carried out an attack in Baghdad that killed a leader of an Iran-backed proxy group that Washington blamed for attacks on U.S. personnel in the region.
And fighting between Israel and the powerful Iranian-backed group Hezbollah across the border with Lebanon has intensified. On Sunday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed to continue confrontations with Israeli forces on the border with Lebanon until the end of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
This is a developing story and will be updated.