Amid heightened tensions in the region, Iran announced on Friday that it had successfully completed an air defense drill utilizing drones intended to intercept hostile targets in an area spanning from its southern to southeastern shores.
Two days after Tehran breached Pakistani sovereignty by striking in Balochistan, injuring three females and killing two youngsters, Pakistan retaliated by attacking terrorist hideouts inside Iran on Thursday.
The Pakistan Army claimed in a statement that an intelligence-based operation known as “Marg Bar Sarmachar” had successfully targeted the terrorist organizations’ hideouts, specifically the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF).
Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, the tit-for-tat strikes have been the most high-profile cross-border incursions in recent memory and have sparked fears about further instability in the Middle East.
An Iranian army spokesman was quoted by state-run Press TV as saying, “Iranian forces have successfully launched a new air defense method that uses drones to intercept and target hostile targets.”
The two-day exercises, which started on Thursday, span a region that borders Pakistan and Afghanistan and stretches from Abadan in the southwest of the province of Khuzestan to Chahbahar in the southeast of the province of Sistan and Baluchistan.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) navy, the aerospace force, and the army’s air force and navy all took part in the drills, according to Press TV.
Although there has never been a smooth relationship between Iran and Pakistan, both have expressed a wish to defuse the tensions following this week’s strikes.
Iran and its Middle Eastern militia allies have been attacking US and Israeli targets in the area in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, all against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in that region.
In addition, Iran claimed to have targeted an Israeli spy center in Iraq and to have launched strikes against facilities said to be Islamic State locations in Syria.
