The United States has condemned Iran's recent attacks in Pakistan, Iraq and Syria, which Tehran said were carried out against "anti-Iranian terrorist groups". "So we do condemn those strikes. We've seen Iran violate the sovereign borders of three of its neighbors in just the past couple of days," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters during a briefing. He further said, in response to a question, that the US always wanted to see peace and stability, "especially in this region, where it’s been the focus of our diplomatic efforts since October 7". Pakistan on Wednesday recalled its ambassador to Iran and blocked an Iranian envoy from returning to Islamabad after an airstrike in Balochistan killed two children. The raid took place late on Tuesday following similar attacks in Iraq and Syria.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said the attack near the two countries' shared border was "unprovoked" and a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty. Iran's Mehr news agency announced that the "missile and drone attack" targeted the Pakistani headquarters of Jaish al-Adl, an organization founded in 2012 and blacklisted by Iran as a terrorist group. Jaish al-Adl has carried out several attacks on Iran in recent years.

Iran said other missile attacks were aimed at "spy headquarters" and "terrorist" targets in Syria and Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region. The attack comes as the Middle East is reeling from the Israel-Gaza crisis and attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. Foreign Secretary Miller said in Washington that "I think it is a little rich for, on one hand, Iran to be the leading funder of terrorism in the region, the leading funder of instability in the region, and on the other hand, claimed that it needs to take these actions to counter terrorism."

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)