A recent development in the Middle East and in Southwest Asia is raising concerns about a further escalation of the Middle East conflict, which has flared up since October 7: in recent days, Iran and Pakistan have carried out attacks with surface-to-surface missiles and airborne stand-off weapons on “terrorist militias” allegedly threatening their own security in peripheral areas of the other country.
While the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) – who had previously attacked an alleged Mossad target in Erbil, Iraq, and the Uyghur “Turkistan Islamic Party” in Idlib, Syria, over a distance of 1,200 kilometers – used long-range missiles such as the Kheibar-Shekan MRBM, Pakistan flew the attacks with its air force. The two sides agreed to respect the territorial integrity of their “fraternal neighbor”, but to take action against the terrorists seeking protection there or operating from there. This alone is therefore unlikely to lead to the feared conflagration – unlike the new conflict over shipping in the Red Sea between the Houthi militias on the one side and the USA and the UK on the other.
In any case, Pakistan states via the air force website Paffalcons that, after a long reconnaissance using Chengdu GJ-2 drones (Wing Loong II), the attack was carried out with JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft had been flown. According to the report, these aircraft used 227-kilogram home-made GIDS B-Rek glide bombs with GPS/INS guidance (similar to the US JDAM-ER kits) against seven terrorist targets up to 80 kilometers behind the border without violating Iranian airspace.
Even though no Iranian jets were present in the remote Sistan-Baluchistan region at the time of the attack, the Chinese Chengdu J-10CEs, which had been added to the PAF inventory two years ago, provided the air cover. The entire operation – including the official poster – was known as “Operation Marg Bar Sarmacha”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxcTcifUHpc&t=147s
At the same time, by the way, some Pakistani J-10CE arrived in Qatar for their first deployment abroad for the bilateral exercise exercise “Zilzal-2” against the new Qatari Eurofighters.
