Could it escalate? A look at what is behind Iran and Pakistan’s airstrikes

ISLAMABAD (AP) — This week’s airstrikes between Iran and Pakistan that killed at least 11 people mark a significant escalation in fraught relations between the neighbors.

Long-running, low-level insurgencies on either side of the border have frustrated both countries, and the apparent targets of the strikes — Iran’s on Tuesday and Pakistan’s response on Thursday — were insurgent groups whose goal is an independent Baluchistan for ethnic Baluch areas in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The question is why Iran and Pakistan would choose to strike insurgents in each other’s territories rather than their own, considering the risk of a wider conflagration.

THE BACKGROUND

Iran and Pakistan share a 900-kilometre (560-mile), largely lawless border where smugglers and militants roam freely. Both countries have suspected each other of supporting, or at least behaving leniently toward some of the groups operating on the other side of the border.

Jaish al-Adl, the Sunni separatist group that Iran targeted on Tuesday, is believed to operate out of Pakistan, launching attacks on Iranian security forces. The Baluch Liberation Army, which was formed in 2000 and has launched attacks against Pakistani security forces and Chinese infrastructure projects, is suspected of hiding out in Iran.

WHY DID PAKISTAN RETALIATE?

Pakistan said its strikes in Iran on Thursday were aimed at hideouts of the Baluchistan Liberation Army and the Baluchistan Liberation Front. It also wanted to send a message to Iran and other neighbors that it can fight back if provoked.

The last time Pakistan retaliated against a neighboring country was in 2019, when it downed two Indian warplanes and captured a pilot in the disputed Kashmir region. It followed an Indian strike