Recent NY Times story on a possible newfound focus in (Pakistani) Baluchistan...
WASHINGTON — President Obama and his national security advisers are considering expanding the American covert war in Pakistan far beyond the unruly tribal areas to strike at a different center of Taliban power in Baluchistan...
- from March 17, 2009 NY Times
Old reports on the area from Jamestown.org...
This extreme southeastern Iranian province is awash with lethal arms and illicit drugs. The more extreme eastern fringes of Iranian Baluchistan are effectively lawless land, and thus attractive to both religious militants and Baluch nationalists. The illicit trade of “drugs for arms” between Iranian and Pakistani Baluchistan goes on with impunity.
...Just as Pakistani Baluchs complain of “Punjabization” of their province, the Iranian Baluchs speak of “Persianization” of theirs. On the other hand, Pakistani Sunni militants, many of whom are suspected of having links with al-Qaeda, see in Iranian Baluchs a Sunni minority persecuted by the Shiite majority. Consequently, they are keen to exploit this constituency in their sectarian war with the Islamic Republic.
- from July 7, 2005, Jamestown.org
I wonder if this could be used as leverage against Iran (for example, I would assume that our strikes would occur in tandem with some on-the-ground target acquisition/confirmation, which would also include cooperation with and developing ties with the Baloch). Or, perhaps, this could be a cooperative effort, given common interests in the region (Iran's Baloch insurgency and our adversaries in the same region).