Killer drones and rockets: How Pakistan military carried out strikes inside Iran

Pakistan has struck back at Iran. A day after Tehran conducted strikes inside Pakistani territory, Pakistan’s Air Force has launched retaliatory attacks on what it says are militant hideouts. “A number of terrorists were killed during the intelligence-based operation,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said, describing it as a “series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts”. “This morning’s action was taken in light of credible intelligence of impending large scale terrorist activities,” it said. “This action is a manifestation of Pakistan’s unflinching resolve to protect and defend its national security against all threats.” “The sole objective of today’s act was in pursuit of Pakistan’s own security and national interest, which is paramount and cannot be compromised,” the ministry added. Iranian media said several missiles hit a village in the Sistan-Baluchestan province that borders Pakistan, killing at least nine people, including four children. But how did Islamabad strike inside Tehran exactly? Let’s take a closer look: What happened? Pakistan said it struck separatist Baloch militants inside Iran using rockets and killer drones. The Times of India quoted Pakistani sources as saying that the Joint Staff Headquarters of the Pakistan Armed Forces initiate the action just before 6 am. “These strikes were conducted successfully using Pakistan Air Force fighter jets using stand-off extended range munitions, while they remained inside Pakistani airspace,” a source said. Seven locations were chosen after confirming the presence of multiple high-value terrorist targets using UAVs. The source said the targets were more than 80 kilometres inside Iranian territory. They were chosen to make sure no harm would come to Iranian civilians or military personnel. Hindustan Times quoted the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) as saying it used killer drones, rockets, loitering munitions and stand-off weapons to carry out precision strikes in Iran.

Stand-off weapons are missiles fired from aircraft at a distance.

Pakistan said it hit hideouts of the Balochistan Liberation Army and the Balochistan Liberation Front in an operation called ‘Marg Bar Sarmachar.’ In Iranian Farsi, “marg bar” means “death to” — and is a famous saying in Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution used to refer to both the United States and Israel. In the local Baluch language, “sarmachar” means guerrilla and is used by the militants operating in the cross-border region. The BLF, which Islamabad targeted inside Iran, is waging an armed insurgency against the Pakistani state, including attacks against Chinese citizens and investments in Balochistan. The army claimed terrorists who carried out recent attacks in Pakistan used these hideouts. It added that “notorious terrorists” such as Dosta alias Chairman, Bajjar alias Soghat, Sahil alias Shafaq, Asghar alias Basham and Wazir alias Wazi were among the people using these hideouts. “Maximum care was taken to avoid collateral damage,” the army said in a statement. “Pakistan Armed Forces remain in a perpetual state of readiness to ensure the safety of Pakistan citizens against acts of terrorism,” the ISPR statement added as per Hindustan Times. “We reaffirm our determination to defeat all enemies of Pakistan with the support of the people of Pakistan.” “Going forward, dialogue and cooperation is deemed prudent in resolving bilateral issues between the two neighbouring brotherly countries,” it added. [caption id=“attachment_13630592” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]
Pakistan said it struck separatist Baloch militants inside Iran using rockets and killer drones. Reuters[/caption] “I can only confirm that we have conducted strikes against anti-Pakistan militant groups that were targeted inside Iran,” a senior intelligence source not authorised to give information to the media told AFP. Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, as well as Iran’s neighbouring Sistan and Baluchestan province, have already faced a low-level insurgency by Baluch nationalists for more than two decades. ‘Martyred innocent Baluch people’ A deputy governor of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province, Ali Reza Marhamati, gave the casualty figures from Thursday’s strike, saying the dead included three women, four children and two men near the town of Saravan along the border in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province. He added that the dead were not Iranian citizens. The Baluch Liberation Army, an ethnic separatist group that’s operated in the region since 2000, said in a statement the strikes targeted and killed its people. “Pakistan has martyred innocent Baluch people,” it said. The Baluch Liberation Army, which has no religious component and has launched attacks against Pakistani security forces and Chinese interests, is suspected of hiding out in Iran. The Baluchistan Liberation Front is similarly nationalistic. While Pakistan’s military said the strikes hit targets associated with the Baluchistan Liberation Front, the group has not acknowledged the claim. HalVash, an advocacy group for the Baluch people, shared images online that appeared to show the remains of the munitions used in the attack. It said a number of homes had been struck in Saravan. It shared videos showing a mud-walled building destroyed and smoke rising over the strike immediately after.

Iran later summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires in the country.

This came days after Tehran said it attacked the bases of another group within Pakistani territory. Iran said on Tuesday it had hit targets inside Pakistan that it alleged were bases of Jaish al Adl (JAA). The Jaish al Adl is an ethnic militant group with Sunni Islamist leanings that primarily Shi’ite Iran sees as a threat. The group has carried out attacks in Iran against its powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps. It grew out of another Islamic extremist group known as Jundallah once alleged to have ties to al-Qaida. All the targeted groups are ethnically Baloch, but it was not clear if JAA has links with the other two. Nuclear-armed Pakistan said civilians were hit and two children killed, warning of consequences for which Tehran would be responsible. Islamabad recalled its ambassador from Iran on Wednesday in protest against a “blatant breach” of its sovereignty. The two countries have accused each other of providing safe haven to the groups in their respective territories. The neighbours have had rocky ties in the past, but the strikes are the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years and come amid growing worries about instability in the Middle East since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on 7 October. The strikes imperil diplomatic relations between the two neighbours, as Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan have long regarded each other with suspicion over militant attacks. Each nation also faces its own internal political pressures — and the strikes may in part be in response to that.   For Iran, there’s been growing pressure for action after the Islamic State group attack, Israel’s war on Hamas and wider unrest against its theocracy. Meanwhile, Pakistan faces a crucial February general election as its military remains a powerful force in its politics. Iran and Pakistan share a 900-kilometre largely lawless border in which smugglers and militants freely pass between the two nations. The route is also key to global opium shipments coming out of Afghanistan.

The Taliban separately urged restraint amid the tensions.

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A senior Pakistani security official told Reuters the military was on “extremely” high alert and would meet any “misadventure” from the Iranian side forcefully. Tehran strongly condemned the strikes, saying civilians were killed, and summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires, its most senior diplomat in Iran, to give an explanation. “The information received indicates that four children, three women and two men, who were foreign nationals, have been killed in the explosion that occurred in a village,” Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told state TV. In Islamabad, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-haq Kakar would cut short a visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos and return home. Iran had been flexing its muscles in the region, even before its cross-border incursion into Pakistan. It launched strikes on Syria against what Tehran said were Islamic State sites and Iraq, where it said it had struck an Israeli espionage centre. Baghdad recalled its ambassador from Tehran. The neighbours had appeared to be improving ties, with Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and Pakistan’s Kakar meeting at Davos this week, before the Iranian strikes on Pakistan. Pakistan’s comments after its retaliatory strikes signal a desire to keep the row contained, but analysts warned it could get out of hand. “Iran’s motivation for attacking Pakistan remains opaque but in light of broader Iranian behaviour in the region it can escalate,” Asfandyr Mir, a senior expert on South Asia security at the US Institute of Peace, told Reuters. “What will cause anxiety in Tehran is that Pakistan has crossed a line by hitting inside Iranian territory, a threshold that even the U.S. and Israel have been careful to not breach.” Khwaja Asif, Pakistan’s defence minister until August, said the action was retaliatory. “A measured response has been given and it was important,” he told Geo TV.

“There should be ongoing efforts on the side that this doesn’t escalate.”

Pakistan’s international bonds fell after the strikes. Longer-dated bonds slipped as much as 1.3 cents in early trading though they later trimmed losses, according to Tradeweb data. . The targeted militant groups operate in an area that includes Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan and Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province. Both are restive, mineral-rich and largely underdeveloped. For both Iran and Pakistan, the cross-border attacks renew questions about the preparedness of their own militaries, particularly their radar and air defense systems. For Pakistan, such systems are crucial as tensions always remain at a low boil with India, their nuclear-armed rival. Their equipment has long been deployed along the frontier, rather than its border with Iran. For Iran, it relies on those systems against potential strikes by its main enemy, the US. “The government and military have been under immense pressure,” said Abdullah Khan, an analyst at the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies. “Iran celebrated (Tuesday’s) attack in its media and the Pakistani public perception of a strong army is not as it used to be, so it had to respond.” There’s also complex geopolitical considerations in the tensions. Pakistan’s military relies on American, Chinese and French fighter jets for its air force — meaning some of those foreign weapons were used in Thursday’s attack. China, a crucial partner in both countries, has urged restraint. Beijing is a key regional player and has a major Belt and Road development in Gwadar port in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province. Baloch, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said she was not aware of any direct Chinese mediation in the conflict so far, though Beijing has offered it. “China sincerely hopes that both sides can exercise calm and restraint and avoid escalation of tension,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Thursday. With inputs from agencies