One day after targeting Mossad and ISIS in Iraq and Syria early this Monday, Iran launched missile attacks at the Jaish al-Adl group in Pakistan.
A day after the Iranian Revolutionary Guards launched missile attacks on targets in Iraq and Syria, it carried out similar strikes in Pakistan this Tuesday, targeting two bases of the Jaish al-Adl group in the neighboring country.
“Two key strongholds of the Jaysh al-Dhulm (Jaish al-Adl) terrorist group in Pakistan” were “specifically targeted and successfully demolished by a combination of missile and drone attacks”, Iran’s Tasnim news agency said in a report Wednesday morning.
Press TV, Iran’s English-language state television also issued a similar report Wednesday morning, attributing the attack to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The targeted spot is an area called “Green Mountain” in Balochistan province of Pakistan, which Iran claims to be one of the largest headquarters of Jaish al-Adl, the “Army of Justice” in Pakistan.
Following Iran’s missile attack, Pakistan condemned the move, with its Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying that the strike inside Pakistani territory killed two civilians and injured three others. “This violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty is completely unacceptable and can have serious consequences,” the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday night. The statement didn’t mention the location of the attacks.
Following Iran’s attack against Pakistan and Pakistan’s resentment from Iran, China invited both countries to cool down. Speaking at a regular briefing today, China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said: “We call on both sides to exercise restraint, avoid actions that would lead to an escalation of tension and work together to maintain peace and stability.” Ning also noted that China considers “both Iran and Pakistan as close neighbors and major Islamic countries, and China doesn’t want tensions between the two countries.”
Jaish al-Adl and a long history of terrorist attacks against Iran
Jaish al-Adl has been launching deadly attacks against Iranian border guards since at least 2013 and has previously claimed bombings and kidnappings of border police.
An Iranian police officer was killed following an attack by armed individuals at a checkpoint in Rask city of Sistan and Baluchistan province on January 20 this year. Jaish al-Adl issued a statement while taking responsibility for the attack and announced that due to the attack, “significant financial and human losses have been inflicted on the military forces” of Iran.
In addition, the Jaish al-Adl group had killed 11 border guards and injured 6 people by attacking another checkpoint in Rask city on December 24. One day after this armed attack, Iran announced the execution of a person affiliated with Jaish al-Adl and accused of spying for Israel’s Intelligence and Special Operations Organization, Mossad.
In response to the attack of Jaish al-Adl on December 24, Seyyed Abdulrahim Mousavi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Army, emphasized in a statement that “with the efforts of the intelligence, security and judicial agencies and the will of the police command, the perpetrators of this crime and disrupters of people’s security will be punished soon.”
The Jaish al-Adl is also on the list of terrorist organizations of the United States and it is one of the militia movements that was created after the arrest and execution of Abdul Malik Rigi, the leader of the Jundallah group, in Iran.
