South East Asia

The badlands that form the Iran-Pakistan border have for years been notorious for smuggling, human trafficking, narcotics trade, and of course, movement of insurgents and terrorists. It is anything but a tranquil frontier because skirmishes, shallow incursions and raids, and even occasional mortar shelling are fairly routine. But both countries …

Iran successfully advanced five strategic objectives: 1) preemptively thwarting an imminent terrorist attack from Pakistani soil; 2) flexing its military muscles before the domestic and international audiences; 3) suggesting that Pakistani-emanating terrorist threats are as dangerous as threats from Israel and the US; 4) reinforcing perceptions of Pakistan as a …

An Iranian strike on Pakistan this week that drew a rapid military riposte and raised fears of greater regional turmoil was driven by Iran’s efforts to reinforce its internal security rather than its ambitions for the Middle East, according to three Iranian officials, one Iranian insider and an analyst. Both …

The challenge ahead is a formidable one that will require the military-intelligence services to fully focus on this newly metastasized terrorist threat in order to emerge victorious, which in turn necessitates their top brass giving them the order to abandon the all-out nationwide crackdown against the opposition. Pakistan’s prior large-scale …

Unless there’s an all-out conventional war between Iran and Pakistan, which isn’t expected unless their newly exacerbated but long-running security dilemma spirals out of control into one by miscalculation (perhaps due to US meddling), Eurasian integration won’t be dealt a deathblow. Nevertheless, very clear limits will be placed upon it …

A Sunni militant group known for targeting rival Muslims has emerged as a dangerous new player in Pakistan, sending a pair of suicide bombers this week to detonate themselves inside a church in the deadliest ever attack against Pakistani Christians. The brutal assault, which killed 85 worshippers during Sunday services, …

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. “On Pakistan, none of the nationals of the friendly and brotherly country of Pakistan were targeted by Iranian missiles and drones,” …

Pakistan conducted lethal strikes inside Iran on Thursday, two days after Tehran attacked alleged Israel-linked militant bases on Pakistan soil. Pakistan’s strikes resulted in women and children casualties, while Iran’s attack on Pakistan killed two children. For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the …

Pakistan launched airstrikes against alleged militant hideouts inside Iran on Thursday, killing at least nine people as it retaliated for a similar attack days earlier by Iran and raising tensions with its neighbor as conflict across the region escalates. The unprecedented attacks by both Pakistan and Iran on either side …

Iran absolutely wouldn’t have authorized any retaliatory Pakistani strikes on its territory like Mohammad Marandi and Pepe Escobar’s explicitly stated and strongly implied theories would respectively suggest if there was any truth to their interpretation of why Iran struck Pakistan earlier in the week. Pakistan confirmed on Thursday morning that …