Pakistan launched attacks on separatist militants in Iran on Thursday. This was a retaliatory strike two days after Tehran claimed it had struck bases of a different group on Pakistani soil.

Iranian media reported that several missiles struck a village near Pakistan’s border in Sistan-Baluchestan, killing nine people including four children.

The tit for tat attacks are the most high-profile cross border intrusions of recent years. They have raised concerns about wider instability in the Middle East following the outbreak of the war between Israel & Hamas on October 7.

Both sides seemed to want to contain the situation. Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that it is committed to good neighborly relations with Pakistan but asked Islamabad not to establish “terrorist base” on its territory.

Pakistan released a similar announcement. The foreign ministry stated that “the sole purpose of today’s action was to pursue Pakistan’s national security, which is paramount and can’t be compromised.”

The ministry reported that “a number of terrorists” were killed in the “intelligence-based operation”, describing it as “a series of highly coordinated precision military strikes specifically targeted against terrorist hideouts”.

Tehran condemned the strikes and said civilians had been killed. It summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires, their most senior diplomat, to give an explanation.

The explosion in a village killed four children, two men and three women, all foreigners. This was revealed by Iran’s interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, on state TV.

An Islamabad-based spokesperson for the foreign ministry said that Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister Anwaar ul-haq will return home after his visit to Davos, Switzerland.

A Pakistani military announcement said that “the precision strikes were conducted using killer drones and rockets as well as loitering weapons, stand-off weapons, and standing-off weapons.” The statement said that the targets were Baloch Liberation Front bases and their associated Baloch Liberation Army.

Iran announced on Tuesday that it had struck targets in Pakistan it claimed were Jaish al Adl bases. All three groups targeted are Baloch ethnic groups, but it is not known if JAA shares any links with either of the two other groups.

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country, said two children were killed and civilians had been hit. Islamabad called back its ambassador to Iran in protest on Wednesday against what it called a “blatant violation” of its sovereignty.

Iran and its allies were flexing their muscle in the region even before the cross-border incursion of Pakistan.

Iran has launched attacks on Syria, targeting what it called Islamic State sites. It also claimed to have struck an Israeli spy centre in Iraq.

Since November, the Houthi militia of Yemen, backed by Iran and claiming to be in solidarity with Palestinians have been targeting shipping in Red Sea.

Pakistan and Iran appeared to be improving their ties. This week, Iran’s Hossein Amirabdollahian met with Pakistan’s Kakar at Davos.

Analysts warned that the danger of an escalation was real.

Asfandyar mir, a senior security expert for South Asia at the U.S. Institute of Peace and a Reuters correspondent, said that the motives behind Iran’s attack on Pakistan are unclear, but given the Iranian behavior in the region, it could escalate.

“What will cause concern in Tehran is the fact that Pakistan has crossed an important line by striking inside Iranian territory. This was a threshold which even Israel and the U.S. were careful not to breach.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry called on Pakistan to exercise maximum restraint, and for Iran to resolve their differences diplomatically.

After speaking with his counterparts in both countries, Hakan Fidan, the Turkish foreign minister, said that neither side wanted tensions to escalate.

The militant groups that are being targeted operate in the southwest Pakistani province of Balochistan, and the southeast Iranian province Sistan-Baluchestan. Both are mineral-rich, restive and underdeveloped.

Islamabad’s BLF is now waging a armed insurgency in Pakistan, including attacks on Chinese nationals and investors in Balochistan.

Iran’s Jaish al Adl is also a militant ethnic group with Sunni Islamist tendencies, but Iran primarily Shi’ite views it as a threat.

The group launched attacks against Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps.