New World Flashpoint: Baluchistan

Pakistani airstrikes on Iran on Thursday morning killed four children and three women, a local official told Iranian state television. State media said several explosions were heard near Saravan city close to the border of Iran and Pakistan, the AP reports. The strikes early Thursday follow Iran launching strikes into Pakistan on Tuesday night, killing two children and raising tensions between nuclear-armed Islamabad and Tehran. The apparent targets on both sides were insurgent groups whose goal is an independent Baluchistan for ethnic Baluch areas in Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan More from the AP:

• The background: Iran and Pakistan share a 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.
• Why now? Iran and Pakistan have long had a volatile relationship, but these strikes are likely prompted by internal dynamics. Tehran has been experiencing a growing pressure for some kind of action after a deadly ISIS attack earlier this month; Israel's war on Iran's ally, Hamas; and wider unrest against its theocracy. Pakistan's attack on Thursday also served a domestic purpose, according to analysts. The government and military have been under immense pressure (since Tuesday)," says Abdullah Khan from the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies think-tank in Islamabad. "The public perception of a strong army is not as it used to be, so it had to respond."
• Could the situation escalate? Iran's military on Thursday began a planned annual air defense drill stretching from its port of Chabahar near Pakistan in the east, all the way across the country to its border with Iraq in the west. The drill will include live fire from aircraft, drones, and air defense systems. Fresh strikes by Iran and Pakistan cannot be ruled out, although this week's attacks raise questions about the preparedness of their own militaries, particularly their radar and air defense systems.

(More Iran stories.)