ISLAMABAD: Iran’s border force fired several mortar shells into Pakistan on Saturday, Pakistani media reported.
Locals in Pakistan’s Balochistan province told Arab News that mortar shells from Iran landed in Panjgur district.
“Yes, it is true that the mortar shells from Iran landed in Panjgur, but we don’t know the exact number of mortars as the area was not immediately accessible.” Rafique Chakar, a resident of Panjgur told Arab News.
An official at Panjgur’s district police officer while talking to Arab news over the phone, on condition of anonymity, confirmed the incident of shelling.
The official said there were no casualties as the shells landed away from populated villages.
The two countries share a porous border of nearly 1,000 km, which is infiltrated by human trafficker and smugglers.
On Thursday, Pakistani Interior Minister Ashan Iqbal told the National Assembly that the country is manning 79 posts along the entire coastline and the border with Iran.
When Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was in Islamabad on March11-13, Tehran said its forces killed four suspected terrorists who attacked a border checkpoint near Balochistan. He discussed cooperation on border security.
“To facilitate movement of people and goods across the border, it was agreed to expedite operationalization of two new border crossings,” Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued at the end of Zarif’s visit.
Iran fires mortar shells into Pakistan
Iran fires mortar shells into Pakistan
Trump ‘very disappointed’ with UK’s Starmer for blocking use of air bases, Telegraph says
- UK PM then said bases could be used in “defensive” operations
- Trump says it took “too long” for Starmer to change his mind
LONDON: Donald Trump said he was “very disappointed” with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not allowing the US to use the Diego Garcia air base to carry out strikes on Iran, the Daily Telegraph quoted the US president as saying in an interview.
Britain had reportedly initially denied the US permission to conduct air strikes from its bases, but on Sunday evening Starmer said he was accepting a request for their use in any “defensive” strikes the US wanted to make against Iranian targets.
In an interview published on Monday Trump told the British newspaper that it took “too long” for Starmer to change his mind.
“That’s probably never happened between our countries before,” he told the Telegraph, adding: “It sounds like he was worried about the legality.”
Trump said Starmer should have approved from the get-go the American use of Diego Garcia — a strategically important US-UK air base in the Indian Ocean — saying Iran was responsible for killing “a lot of people from your country.”
Britain was not involved in the joint US-Israel air strikes on Iran that killed the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday.
Since attacks on Iran started on Saturday, Iran has been targeting Gulf countries with missiles, and on Sunday an Iranian-made drone hit Britain’s RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus, causing limited damage and no casualties.
Trump said it was “useful” that the US would now be able to launch operations from Diego Garcia, as he also criticized a deal Starmer has made over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, where Diego Garcia is based.
