Suicide Bombing Outside Iranian Consulate in Peshawar

Also Possibility of Cross Border Operations by Iran Military

Two security guards were killed and more than a dozen people were wounded today when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the gate of the Iranian consulate in Peshawar, in northwest Pakistan. Reuters, quoting local police officers, reported that the man intended to enter the consulate building but was stopped by the guards at the gate, and that’s when he blew himself up.

The bombing came amid tensions at Iran-Pakistan border, with the expectations that the Iranian military might stage a cross border operations to rescue five Iranian border guards taken hostage and believed to have been taken to the Pakistani side of the border.  On 9 February, the militant Baluch group Jaish al-Adl (“Army of Justice”) took responsibility for taking the guards hostage. Since then there has been growing pressure on Iranian military to take search and rescue operations across the border.

If previous Iranian military cross-border actions against militant groups are any indication, the IRGC will deploy rocket launchers and field guns at the Pakistani border and could use IRGC’s Special Forces (Saberin) to free the hostages. It is doubtful, however, if Iran would escalate the operations by deploying IRGC Su-25 jet fighters in support of its troops on the ground.

Photo credit: Security personnel stand guard outside Iranian consulate building in Peshawar following a suicide bomb attack; 24 February 2014. (AFP)