of influence. The disputes took place when Baloch politicians Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo and Ataullah Mengal of the National Awami Party refused to accept the demands of Akbar Bugti to establish himself as the Governor of the Pakistani Province of Balochistan. Operation At midnight on 9 February 1973, Akbar Bugti informed Pakistani authorities about a covert Soviet weapons shipment intended for Baloch insurgents that had been smuggled into the country with Iraqi assistance. He reported that the weapons were being kept at the Iraqi embassy in Islamabad. On 10 February 1973, Pakistani police and paramilitary forces began to prepare an operation to raid the Iraqi embassy. After a few hours of planning, a raid was conducted by the Pakistan Rangers, accompanied by the Islamabad Police to storm the embassy and seize any means of support for the rebels. The raid was a success, and Pakistani forces discovered 300 Soviet-made submachine guns with an excess of 50,000 rounds of ammunition and a large amount of funding intended for Baloch militants. Aftermath Following the raid, the Baloch nationalist leader Sher Mohammad Marri paid a formal visit to Baghdad. Newspapers widely reported that the Soviet arms were intended to be given to Baloch separatists in their fight against Pakistan and Iran to further fuel tensions between the dissident tribes against the two nations. Media outlets throughout Pakistan predicted that the discovery of these weapons would muster greater support for the government from other ethnic groups in the country. Supported by Iranian forces, Pakistan launched a large-scale military operation against Baloch rebels shortly after this incident. This counter-insurgency operation finally ended in 1977 after the insurgency/rebellion was largely crushed and left disheartened. Despite this setback, Iraq continued to undertake covert activities to empower Baloch nationalists and attempt to destabilize Pakistan and Iran. The culmination of tensions between Iran (a key U.S. ally with a developed economy and the fifth-largest military in the world at the time) and Iraq would eventually reach an extreme point after the 1979 Iranian Revolution and subsequent Iran-Iraq War, in which Pakistan would provide the Iranians with covert support and inflict major losses on invading Iraqi forces. See also Iraq-Pakistan relations Iran-Iraq relations Iran-Pakistan relations Balochistan Province, Pakistan Baloch people Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran Insurgency in Balochistan References Study of Revenge: The First World Trade Center Attack and Saddam Hussein's War Against America by Laurie Mylroie Summary, . Political Terrorism: