India acknowledges shootdown of its jets by Pakistan during May battles

SINGAPORE — The Chief of Defence Staff of the Indian Armed Forces has for the first time confirmed Pakistan shot down Indian Air Force fighter jets during clashes in early May.

Speaking to Bloomberg TV at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore, Gen. Anil Chauhan did not disclose the number of its aircraft that were shot down, but did push back on Pakistani claims that six Indian aircraft were shot down.

He however did not reveal the type of aircraft that were lost, although photos and videos of wreckage posted on social media indicated that at least one each of India’s French-made Rafale and Mirage 2000 jets were downed.

The opening day with the Indian strikes, which have been codenamed Operation Sindoor, featured an air battle fought at long range that reportedly involved over a hundred aircraft.

Chauhan noted that India learnt the lessons of the first day of the battle, which subsequently enabled it to mount more successful strikes on targets inside Pakistan.

“We were able to understand the tactical mistakes that were made, remedied it, rectified it, and were able to implement it after two days,” he said.

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He added that the Indian Air Force was able to strike deep inside Pakistan in the subsequent days of the clashes, which took place between May 7-10.

These included attacks on several airbases and what India says are terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan, which Chauhan said utilized a range of stand-off land attack munitions.

The latest clashes between the nuclear-armed South Asian states was triggered an by April 22 attack blamed on Pakistani-backed separatist militants that killed 26 civilians, mostly tourists, in the resort town of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir.