BEIJING
\nChina urged Pakistan and Iran on Wednesday to show \u201crestraint\u201d, after Islamabad said Tehran had carried out an air strike on its territory that killed two children.
\n\u201cWe call on both sides to exercise restraint, avoid actions that would lead to an escalation of tension and work together to maintain peace and stability,\u201d foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular briefing.
\n\u201cWe consider both Iran and Pakistan as close neighbours and major Islamic countries,\u201d she said. Both Iran and Pakistan are close partners of Beijing and members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
\nPakistan denounced the strike, near the nations\u2019 shared border late on Tuesday, as \u201ccompletely unacceptable\u201d, saying it was unprovoked.
\nIran offered no immediate official comment but its state-run Nour News agency said the attack destroyed the Pakistan headquarters of the militant group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice). Formed in 2012, Jaish al-Adl is blacklisted by Iran as a terrorist group and has carried out several attacks on Iranian soil in recent years.
\nThe strike came after Iran launched missile attacks on \u201cspy headquarters\u201d and \u201cterrorist\u201d targets in Syria, and in Iraq\u2019s autonomous Kurdistan region.
\nThe Iranian strikes add to multiple crises across the Middle East, with Israel waging a war against Hamas in Gaza and pro-Palestinian Huthi rebels in Yemen attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
\nA day earlier, an Iranian drone and missile strike on targets, which Tehran described as bases for the militant group Jaish al-Adl, in the Panjgur district of Balochistan killed two \u201cinnocent children\u201d and wounded three girls, Iranian state media and Foreign Office (FO) in Islamabad said.
\nPakistan condemned the attack, describing it an \u201cunprovoked violation\u201d of the Pakistani airspace, and warned Tehran of serious consequences. The FO said in a late-night statement that the violation of Pakistan\u2019s sovereignty was completely unacceptable.
\nTwo bases of Jaish al Adl in Pakistan were targeted by missiles on Tuesday, Iranian state media reported, a day after Iran\u2019s elite Revolutionary Guards missiles strikes hit an \u201cIsraeli spy centre\u201d in Iraq and targeted Islamic State militants in Syria.
\n\u201cThese bases were hit and destroyed by missiles and drones,\u201d media reports in Tehran said. Iran\u2019s Nournews, affiliated with the country\u2019s top security body, said the attacked bases were located in the Balochistan province.
\nHowever, Pakistan contested Iran\u2019s claims that the strikes destroyed \u201cterrorist hideouts\u201d and strongly protested with the neighbouring country. \u201cThis violation of Pakistan\u2019s sovereignty is completely unacceptable and can have serious consequences,\u201d the FO statement said.
\nJaish-al-Adl is a militant group established in 2012 and had been operating from Iran\u2019s Sistan-Balochistan province. Tehran alleges that the group also has hideouts across the border in Pakistan.
\nThe group since its inception took responsibility of several attacks against Iran\u2019s security forces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING China urged Pakistan and Iran on Wednesday to show \u201crestraint\u201d, after Islamabad said Tehran had carried out an air strike on its territory that killed two children. \u201cWe call on both sides to exercise restraint, avoid actions that would lead to an escalation of tension and work together to maintain peace and stability,\u201d foreign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-381496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n