“This morning Pakistan undertook a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts” in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.

It said the action was taken in light of “credible intelligence of impending large-scale terrorist activities”, adding that “a number of terrorists were killed”.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported that at least nine people, including women and children, were killed in blasts around the city of Saravan in the country’s southeast.

An “informed official” was quoted as telling state media: “Iran demands an immediate explanation from the Pakistani authorities about this incident.”

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Tehran and Islamabad frequently accuse each other of allowing militants to operate from the other’s territory to launch attacks, but it is rare that official forces on either side engage.

“Pakistan fully respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Islamabad’s foreign ministry said.

“The sole objective of today’s act was in pursuit of Pakistan’s own security and national interest which is paramount and cannot be compromised.”

Islamabad said the strikes in its territory killed “two innocent children”.

Formed in 2012, Jaish al-Adl is blacklisted by Iran as a terrorist group and has carried out several attacks on Iranian soil in recent years.

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Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Wednesday that Tehran respected the sovereignty of Pakistan but would not allow his nation’s security “to be compromised or played with”.

Islamabad called the strike an “unprovoked and blatant breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty” and recalled its ambassador to Iran and blocked Tehran’s envoy – currently in Iran – from returning to the country.

Iran said it was committed to good neighbourly relations with Pakistan, but called on the neighbouring state to prevent the establishment of “terrorist bases” on its soil, Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

China, close partners of Iran and Pakistan, said it was willing to mediate between the two countries.

“The Chinese side sincerely hopes that the two sides can exercise calm and restraint and avoid an escalation of tension,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular press conference.

“We are also willing to play a constructive role in de-escalating the situation if both sides so wish,” she said.

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White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the United States was monitoring the situation “very, very closely” and was in touch with Pakistani officials.

“These are two well-armed nations and again we don’t want to see an escalation of any armed conflict in the region, certainly between those two countries,” Kirby told journalists aboard Air Force One.

Pakistan has not specified where Thursday’s strike took place, but Pakistani media said it was near Panjgur in southwest Balochistan province, where the countries share a sparsely populated border of nearly 1,000km (620 miles).

The Pakistani military has been waging a decades-long fight against ethnic Baloch separatists in the province, the largest but poorest region of the country.

Hours before the strike, Prime Minister Kakar had met the Iranian foreign minister on the sidelines of the WEF.

“This violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty is completely unacceptable and can have serious consequences,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry statement said.

Additional reporting by Reuters