10 Pakistanis killed in Pakistan's strikes on Iranian border village
People gather near rubble in the aftermath of Pakistan's military strike on an Iranian village near Saravan, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran, January 18.
An Iranian provincial official said on Thursday 10 Pakistanis were killed in strikes by Pakistan's army on Iran's southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, according to Iran's official news agency IRNA.
While elaborating on the details of the strikes earlier in the day that targeted a border village near Iran's Saravan County, Sistan and Baluchestan Deputy Governor for Security and Law Enforcement Alireza Marhamati said that the attacks, which were carried out by three drones at around 04:30am, destroyed four residential houses.
When asked to comment on the Pakistani strikes earlier in the day, Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said nine foreigners were killed in a "blast" in the southeastern border village.
Vahidi said the victims included four children, three women and two men, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
The foreigners were killed in a "blast" that had occurred in a village around three to four kilometers off the common border with Pakistan, he said.
The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the attack in a statement on Thursday, saying the country "undertook a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts in Sistan and Baluchestan province of Iran."
It added that "a number of terrorists" were killed in the operation.
The Pakistani ministry stressed that the "terrorists" under attack were of Pakistani origin and called themselves "Sarmachars," which is a term for guerrillas and used by the militants operating in the cross-border region.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Thursday condemned the Pakistani strikes in a statement, saying the ministry had summoned the Pakistani charge d'affaires in Tehran to voice Iran's official protest and request an explanation from the Pakistani government regarding the incident.
The Pakistani strike followed Iranian attacks on "terrorist bases" in Pakistan's Balochistan province on Tuesday, which, according to Pakistan, had killed two Pakistani children. Following the Iranian attacks, Pakistan condemned "Iran's violation of its airspace" and recalled its ambassador from Iran.
