Pakistan Unleashes Retaliatory Strikes in Iran, Killing Nine

Pakistan launched retaliatory airstrikes on Thursday inside Iran, killing at least nine, the day after Islamabad warned that an earlier Iranian attack on Pakistani territory could lead to “serious consequences.”

Pakistan said its “specifically targeted precision military strikes” targeted “terrorist hideouts” in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province on the Pakistani border. The operation risked damaging relations between the neighboring countries further after Tehran carried out a missile and drone attack on a separate militant group inside Pakistan on Tuesday in yet another instance of militarized violence to erupt in the Middle East since the breakout of Israel’s war against Hamas.

Both Baluch groups targeted by Iran and Pakistan this week hold broadly similar separatist goals across the two countries’ border, with both nations accusing the other of providing sanctuary to terrorists.

Read more at The Daily Beast.