Armed men killed nine foreigners this Saturday by attacking a home in southeastern Iran, a media report said, a week after an exchange of deadly strikes between Iran and Pakistan in this troubled border region. “According to witnesses, gunmen killed nine non-Iranian people in a house near the town of Saravan,” in Sistan-Baluchistan province, Mehr agency reported.
No group took responsibility for this attack which occurred in the morning, according to the agency.
Iran and Pakistan frequently accuse each other of allowing rebel groups to operate from each other’s territory to launch attacks. On January 16, Iran carried out a missile and drone attack against a “terrorist” group on Pakistani soil, which responded on January 18 by in turn targeting “terrorist hideouts” in Iran. These two attacks left a total of 11 dead, mainly women and children, according to the authorities.
An alert quickly extinguished
They caused a brief diplomatic crisis, with Pakistan having recalled its ambassador to Tehran and announcing that the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan, who was in his country, would be prevented from returning to Islamabad. These reciprocal bombings also caused concern in the international community at a time when the Middle East is shaken by the war between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.
But the two countries then announced, on January 22, the return to normal in their relations and an upcoming visit by the head of Iranian diplomacy Hossein Amir-Abdollahian to Islamabad.