The Middle East war, which broke out in October last year due to a surprise attack on Israel by the Palestinian armed group Hamas, spread beyond the Middle East and the Red Sea area to Pakistan in Southwest Asia. Pakistan carried out a retaliatory airstrike on the 18th (local time), two days after being attacked by neighboring Iran. Pakistan is the world’s fifth most populous country and an unofficial nuclear power, and there are concerns that the Middle East war has raised the risk of nuclear war.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on this day and said, “To protect national interests, we carried out a precision strike on a terrorist hideout in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan Province.” CNN and others reported that Pakistan conducted airstrikes on seven locations in Iran and that at least seven people were killed.
This is a follow-up to Iran’s previous airstrike on the 16th on the base of its Sunni separatist armed group Jaish al-Adl, based in Pakistan. Pakistan immediately protested, saying, “We can never tolerate violations of sovereignty,” and began retaliating.
Since the outbreak of the Middle East war, ‘Shiite leader’ Iran has always sided with Hamas and Yemen’s Shiite rebels ‘Houthi’, who are attacking Western civilian ships in the Red Sea area. Meanwhile, on the 3rd, when the Sunni extremist armed group ‘Islamic State (IS)’ committed a terrorist attack at the 4th anniversary memorial service for former Revolutionary Guard Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike, a large-scale counterattack was launched against the Sunni armed group. On the 15th, we also struck an IS stronghold in Syria.
There is an analysis that Iran’s series of airstrikes against neighboring countries, including Pakistan, are a ‘show of force’ intended to show not only Israel and other hostile forces but also its supporters.
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Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.