At least three women and four children were killed in a Pakistani missile attack on Iran's southeastern border region, Iranian state media reported on Thursday. "Pakistan attacked an Iranian border village with missiles," state television said, quoting Alireza Marhamati, deputy provincial governor of Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province. "Three women and four children were killed in this incident. All non-Iranian nationals," he added. He noted that the attack targeted a village near the town of Sarawan on the border with Pakistan. Iran's Mehr news agency previously reported "drone and missile attacks" in the sensitive area and said "several people" were injured.

The rocket attack came two days after Iran what it claimed struck a "terrorist" target in Pakistan, killing at least two children. On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdullahian said his government was targeting an "Iranian terrorist group" in Pakistan. He said the attack was a response to deadly attacks in southeastern Iran by Jaish al-Adl, a jihadist group founded in 2012 and blacklisted by Tehran as a "terrorist" organization. "None of the nationals of the friendly and brotherly country of Pakistan were targeted by Iranian missiles and drones," Abollahian said.

Pakistan on Wednesday condemned the attacks near the two countries' border, recalled its ambassador to Iran and blocked Tehran's envoy from returning to Islamabad. On January 10, Jaish al-Adl claimed that an attack on a police station in the southeastern city of Rusk left one police officer dead. The same group carried out a similar attack in December that left 11 police officers dead. The group announced on Wednesday that it had killed a member of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to IRNA.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)