Gunmen killed nine foreigners when they attacked a house in southeastern Iran this Saturday, a media report said, a week after a clash between Iran and Pakistan in this restive border region. “According to witnesses, gunmen killed nine non-Iranians in a house near the city of Saravan,” Mehr Agency reported in Sistan-Baluchestan province.
According to the agency, no group claimed responsibility for this attack, which occurred in the morning.
Iran and Pakistan repeatedly accuse each other of allowing rebel groups to operate and launch attacks from each other's territory. On January 16, Iran carried out a missile and drone attack against a “terrorist” group on Pakistani soil, which responded on January 18 by again targeting “terrorist hideouts” in Iran. According to authorities, a total of eleven people, mostly women and children, were killed in these two attacks.
A warning quickly went out
They caused a brief diplomatic crisis when Pakistan recalled its ambassador to Tehran and announced that the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan, who was in his country, would be prevented from returning to Islamabad. These mutual bombings also sparked concern in the international community at a time when the Middle East is reeling from the war between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.
But on January 22, the two countries announced a return to normality in their relations and an upcoming visit to Islamabad by Iranian diplomatic chief Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.