ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq on Wednesday joined regional countries in urging India and Pakistan to resolve their issues through peaceful means, after tensions escalated with an exchange of strikes between the two countries, killing 36.

Violent clashes broke out between the nuclear-armed neighbors after India launched airstrikes on the Pakistan-administered Kashmir area targeting “terrorist infrastructure,” prompting retaliatory strikes from the Pakistani side on the India-administered parts of Kashmir.

The exchange of hostilities has claimed at least 36 lives as of the time of writing this article, with 26 casualties in Pakistan and 12 in India.

India's initial bombardment came two weeks after militants gunned down 28 tourists in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir territory, with New Delhi accusing Islamabad of having supported the attack.

The incident has become a cause of regional concern, with countries such as Iraq, Turkey, and Iran weighing in on the matter. Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein urged the two countries to “resolve all differences and tensions… through peaceful means” in a joint presser with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov.

The Turkish foreign ministry, for their part, warned that the contest “runs the risk of an all-out war,” condemning the “provocative initiative.” Ankara urged both countries to “show good sense.”

Iranian state media, meanwhile, cited Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei as calling the escalations “a cause for serious concern.” Baqaei urged the two neighbors to “practice restraint” and “take steps to reduce tensions.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday afternoon said in a statement that “the Armed Forces of Pakistan have duly been authorized to undertake corresponding actions” in relation to “self-defense” and avenging “the loss of innocent Pakistani lives and the blatant violation of its sovereignty.”

India and Pakistan have been caught an irredentist conflict over Kashmir for decades. The two neighbors have locked horns over Kashmir—now divided into two administrations controlled by India and Pakistan—ever since the two countries split after gaining independence from the British.

Wednesday’s hostilities mark the most violent clash between the two countries in two decades.