Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa said that Pakistan wants to de-escalate prevailing tense situation in the Middle East, and shall support all initiatives which bring peace to the region. “We would like situation to de-escalate & shall support all initiatives which bring peace in the region. We call upon all concerned to avoid rhetoric in favour of diplomatic engagement. We all have worked a lot to bring peace in the region by fighting against terrorism”, COAS added. Notably, tension escalating between US and Iran after Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, was killed on Friday in a US airstrike on his convoy at Baghdad airport. “We would like situation to de-escalate & shall support all initiatives which bring peace in the region.We call upon all concerned to avoid rhetoric in favour of diplomatic engagement. We all have worked a lot to bring peace in the region by fighting against terrorism”,COAS.(2/3) — DG ISPR (@OfficialDGISPR) January 8, 2020 Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on US forces in Iraq in the early hours of Wednesday in retaliation for the US drone strike on an Iranian commander whose killing has raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East. Iran has claimed that at least 80 people were killed in ballistic missiles targeting US military bases in Iraq. Tehran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles from Iranian territory against at least two Iraqi military bases hosting US-led coalition personnel at about 1.30 a.m. local time, the US military said.