Region

TEHRAN — An Israeli strike on Damascus killed the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' intelligence chief for Syria and his deputy as well as two other Guards members on Saturday, Iranian media reported.

"The Revolutionary Guards' Syria intel chief, his deputy and two other Guards members were martyred in the attack on Syria by Israel," Iran's Mehr news agency said, quoting an informed but unnamed source.

In a statement, the Revolutionary Guards confirmed four of its members were killed in the strike on the Syrian capital and accused Israel of being behind the attack.

The official Syrian news agency SANA said a residential building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus was targeted in what it called "an Israeli aggression".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the Israeli strike had targeted a neighbourhood sheltering leaders of the Guards, as well as pro-Iranian Palestinian factions.

The Israeli raid comes four days after the Revolutionary Guard said it attacked "an Israeli intelligence headquarters" in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's northern province of Kurdistan.

Iraqi authorities said the attack killed four civilians and wounded six others.

WASHINGTON — The United States carried out fresh strikes against Yemen's Houthi rebels on Saturday, the military said, targeting an anti-ship missile that was "prepared to launch".

Washington is seeking to reduce the Iran-backed Houthis' military capabilities, but the Yemeni rebels have continued their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, despite more than a week of strikes, and have vowed to keep targeting merchant vessels.

At around 4 am Sanaa time (1:00 GMT), US "forces conducted airstrikes against a Houthi anti-ship missile that was aimed into the Gulf of Aden and was prepared to launch", a statement from US Central Command said on Saturday.

"US forces determined the missile presented a threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region, and subsequently struck and destroyed the missile in self-defence."

"This action will make international waters safer and more secure for US Navy and merchant vessels," the statement said.

The Houthis began striking Red Sea shipping in November, saying they were hitting Israeli-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza. They subsequently declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.

Saturday's operation marks the fifth round of strikes by the United States on the rebel group in recent weeks. Dozens of sites in Yemen have been hit, including a Houthi radar site and missiles Washington says posed a threat to civilian and military vessels.

Washington is also seeking to put diplomatic and financial pressure on the Houthis, re-designating them as a "terrorist" entity after dropping that label soon after President Joe Biden took office.

Yemen is just one part of a growing crisis in the Middle East amid the war in Gaza, where Israel's relentless bombardment and ground offensive have killed nearly 25,000 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.

KAMPALA — The right of the Palestinian people to build their own state "must be recognised by all", UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Uganda on Saturday

"The refusal to accept a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable," the UN leader insisted in the Ugandan capital Kampala.

Such a stance “would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security; exacerbate polarisation; and embolden extremists everywhere”, Guterres warned.

“The right of the Palestinian people to build their own state must be recognised by all.”

The ongoing bloodshed in the Palestinian Gaza territory was prompted by the October 7 sudden attack on Israel by Hamas fighters.

Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground offensive since then have killed at least 24,927 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry.

In its final summit communique, the Non-Aligned Movement on Saturday “strongly condemned the illegal Israeli military aggression against the Gaza Strip”, and called for “a lasting humanitarian ceasefire”.

The assembled leaders in Kampala also called for “the independence and sovereignty of the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in order to achieve a two-state solution”.

The Non-Aligned Movement is a forum of 120 countries that aren’t formally aligned to any major power bloc. Its members include India, Iran, Iraq and South Africa.

The World Health Organisation has deplored the “inhuman living conditions” in the small coastal territory of 2.4 million inhabitants, many of whom have been displaced by the Israeli action.

On Monday, Guterres appealed for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

The United States, Israel’s main ally and key supporter in its war against Hamas, has also recently reiterated its support for the creation of a Palestinian state.

In recent days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reaffirmed his opposition to the creation of a viable Palestinian state, drawing criticism from his American ally.

TEHRAN — Pakistan launched deadly strikes against militant targets in Iran on Thursday in retaliation for Iranian strikes on its territory, further stoking tensions and prompting Iran to summon Pakistan’s envoy.

At least nine people were killed in the strikes in restive Sistan-Baluchistan province, most of them women or children, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.

They came just two days after Iran carried out raids on what it described as “terrorist” targets in Pakistan, killing at least two children. 

While Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan often accuse each other of allowing extremists to operate from the other’s territory, cross-border operations by government forces have been rare.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry described Thursday’s raids as a “series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts” in Sistan-Baluchistan.

The strikes took place at around 4:30am (0100 GMT), with three drones destroying four houses in a village near the city of Saravan, IRNA said, citing Alireza Marhamati, deputy governor of the province.

Iranian media carried images showing severely damaged homes, with one video showing people gathered around a crater.

All those killed were Pakistanis and investigations were under way to determine why they were in the Iranian village, Marhamati said.

The raids targeted Baluch separatists, according to the Pakistani army. The military has been waging a decades-long fight against separatist groups in its sparsely populated border region.

The foreign ministry said the strikes were carried out based on “credible intelligence of impending large-scale terrorist activities”, insisting it “fully respects” Iran’s sovereignty.

Iran condemned the action, and summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires “to protest and request an explanation from the Pakistani government”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said.

The ministry described Pakistan’s strikes as “unbalanced and unacceptable” and said Iran expects Pakistan “to adhere to its obligations in preventing the establishment of bases and armed terrorist groups in Pakistan”.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has defended Iran’s strikes in Pakistan as a response to recent deadly attacks on the security forces by the extremist group Jaish Al-Adl (Army of Justice). 

On Thursday, the ministry underlined that Iran understood that Pakistan’s “friendly and brotherly government is separate from armed terrorists”.

“Iran always adheres to its neighbourly policy and does not allow its enemies and terrorist allies to break these relations,” it said.

Formed in 2012, Jaish Al-Adl has carried out several attacks on Iranian soil in recent years.

Pakistan delivered a strong rebuke to Iran over the strikes, recalling its ambassador from Tehran and blocking Iran’s envoy from returning to Islamabad.

‘Spiral of violence’ 

China offered to mediate between the neighbouring countries, both close economic partners of Beijing.

The European Union expressed concern about the “spiral of violence in the Middle East and beyond”. 

Rising Iran-Pakistan tensions add to multiple crises in the region, with Israel waging a war against Hamas in Gaza and Houthi rebels in Yemen attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

Meanwhile Afghanistan — which borders both Iran and Pakistan, and is home to a small Baluch minority — said the violence between its neighbours was “alarming” and urged them to “exercise restraint”.

On Thursday, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar would cut short his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, “in view of the ongoing developments”.

Hours before the strike, Kakar had met the Iranian foreign minister on the sidelines of the forum and posed for photographs.

Earlier this week, IRNA reported that the Iranian and Pakistani navies had carried out joint exercises in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf. 

Sistan-Baluchistan province is one of the few mainly Sunni Muslim provinces in Shiite-dominated Iran and has seen persistent unrest involving cross-border drug-smuggling gangs and rebels from the Baluchi ethnic minority as well as extremists.

In January, Jaish al-Adl claimed an attack on a police station in the border town of Rask which killed one officer. The group carried out a similar attack in the same town in December which killed 11 police officers.

On Wednesday, the group said it had killed a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Sistan-Baluchistan, IRNA reported.

DAVOS, Switzerland — Tehran’s top diplomat said on Wednesday that his country’s armed forces targeted an “Iranian terrorist group” in Pakistan the day before, after Islamabad said the strike killed two children. “None of the nationals of the friendly and brotherly country of Pakistan were targeted by Iranian missiles and drones,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“The so-called Jaish Al Adl group, which is an Iranian terrorist group, was targeted,” he added.

The raid came late on Tuesday after Tehran also launched attacks in Iraq and Syria against what it called “anti-Iranian terrorist groups”.

Pakistan denounced the strike near the nations’ shared border, recalled its ambassador from Iran and blocked Tehran’s envoy from returning to Islamabad.

A few hours before the strike, Pakistani caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar met Amir-Abdollahian on the sidelines of the Davos Forum.

Amir-Abdollahian said Iran’s attack on “Pakistan’s soil” was a response to the Jaish Al Adl group’s recent deadly attacks on the Islamic republic, particularly on the city of Rask in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan.

At attack on January 10 on a police station in the city killed a policeman, almost a month after 11 police officers were killed in a similar attack in the area.

Both attacks were claimed by Jaish Al Adl (Army of Justice), a Sunni Muslim extremist group that was formed in 2012 and is blacklisted by Iran as a “terrorist” group.

“The group has taken shelter in some parts of Pakistan’s Balochistan province,” Amir-Abdollahian said, adding that “we’ve talked with Pakistani officials several times on this matter”.

The foreign minister said Iran respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Pakistan but would not “allow the country’s national security to be compromised or played with”.