Iran, Pak row escalates on cross-border strike

INDIA'S FOREIGN MINISTRY SAID THERE SHOULD BE ZERO TOLERANCE ON TERROR AND IT 'UNDERSTANDS ACTIONS TAKE IN SELF DEFENCE'

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Pakistan recalled its ambassador from Iran on Wednesday after the latter violated its airspace and struck what Tehran called were militant camps, plunging the two Muslim nations into an unprecedented diplomatic crisis and threatening to expand the ongoing war in the region beyond West Asia to new parts of the world.

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, a foreign ministry spokesperson in Islamabad, said the strikes led to the deaths of two children and warned that violation was an unprovoked and blatant breach of Pakistan's sovereignty and was "unacceptable".

Baloch added that Pakistan asked the Iranian ambassador, who was visiting Tehran when the attack took place, not to return. Iran did not immediately acknowledge Pakistan's decision. The attack marks a sharp escalation of Iran's campaign against Jaish al-Adl, a separatist group based in Pakistan. Iran's Tasnim news agency said two bases belonging to the militants in Balochistan province were destroyed late on Tuesday with missiles and drones.

The strike came as tension rippled through West Asia over the war between Israel and Iranbacked Hamas, which has been raging in Gaza for more than 100 days. The Houthi group in Yemen, also backed by Iran, has been escalating assaults on shipping in the Red Sea, drawing counter attacks from the US and its allies.

India's foreign ministry, in a statement on Wednesday, said the air strikes were a "matter between Iran and Pakistan".