Iran fired missiles at Pakistan on Tuesday, apparently with the aim of hitting two bases of the Sunni group Jaish al Adl, which operates on the border between Iran and Pakistan and is considered terrorist by both the Iranian and US governments. The attack was announced on Iranian state television and condemned by the Pakistani government, which called it “completely unacceptable” and said there would be “serious consequences.”
Iran has long been in conflict with Jaish al Adl, a Sunni Islamist terrorist group that has been fighting for years against the Iranian government and which operates in Balochistan, a region on the border with Pakistan inhabited by a large Sunni population. Iran, by contrast, is a Shiite-majority country, and governed by a Shiite religious regime. It is unclear why Iran attacked the group’s bases now. The bombing, moreover, occurred less than a day after another Iranian missile attack in Iraq (against alleged Israeli spy bases) and in Syria (against those that Iran itself he defined «anti-Iranian terrorist groups», i.e. Sunni groups including ISIS).
Jaish al Adl is a group that frequently carries out terrorist attacks against Iran, which accuses Pakistan and other Sunni countries, such as Saudi Arabia, of fomenting the violence. In some cases it has also attacked Pakistan: in April 2023, for example, it killed four Pakistani soldiers in an attack.
In response to the Iranian attack, Pakistan recalled its ambassador from Iran, a measure of diplomatic protest, and called the bombing a “serious violation” of Pakistan’s sovereignty.
So on Tuesday, in less than a day, Iran bombed Iraq, Syria and Pakistan. It is not entirely clear why this series of bombings occurred, nor whether they are connected to each other.
The attack against Iraq, the first, had hit Iraqi Kurdistan and, according to Iranian state media, was directed against a “headquarters” of the Mossad, the Israeli foreign spy agency. The attack in Syria had hit “anti-Iranian terrorist groups”, and it is possible that it was a retaliation for the terrorist attack that took place in Kerman, Iran, at the beginning of January, in which two bombs were detonated and killed 84 people. The attack was then claimed by ISIS, which was among the groups attacked in Syria.
It is unclear whether the bombing in Pakistan against Jaish al Adl is also in some way retaliation for the Kerman attack, or whether it is more of a way for Iran to attack its enemies at a time when , after Kerman, the Iranian regime feels under pressure and tries to attack threats to its security.