Latest news with #terrorists
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
India top general admits aerial ‘losses' in recent conflict with Pakistan
India's chief of defence staff says the country suffered initial losses in the air during a recent military conflict with neighbouring Pakistan, but declined to give details. 'What was important is, why did these losses occur, and what we will do after that,' General Anil Chauhan told the Reuters news agency on Saturday on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore. India and Pakistan were engaged in a four-day conflict this month, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10. More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire on both sides, but there are competing claims on the casualties. India says more than 100 'terrorists' were killed in its 'precision strikes' on several 'terror camps' across Pakistan, which rejects the claim, saying more than 30 Pakistani civilians were killed in the Indian attacks. New Delhi, meanwhile, says nearly two dozen civilians were killed on the Indian side, most of them in Indian-administered Kashmir, along the disputed fighting between the two nuclear powers was triggered by an attack on tourists in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 that killed 26 people, almost all of them tourists. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for supporting the armed group behind the attack, an allegation Islamabad denied. During their conflict, Pakistan had also claimed to have downed at least five Indian military jets, including at least three Rafale fighters. But Chauhan on Saturday dismissed it as 'absolutely incorrect', confirming his country had lost at least one aircraft. 'I think what is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down,' he told Bloomberg TV in a separate interview in Singapore. On May 11, a day after the ceasefire, India's Air Marshal AK Bharti told reporters in New Delhi that 'all our pilots are back home', adding that 'we are in a combat scenario, and that losses are a part of combat'. Chauhan said on Saturday India switched tactics after suffering losses in the air on the first day of conflict and established a decisive advantage. 'So we rectified tactics and then went back on the [May] 7th, 8th and 10th in large numbers to hit airbases deep inside Pakistan, penetrated all their air defences with impunity, carried out precision strikes,' he said. Islamabad has denied it suffered any losses of planes but has acknowledged its airbases suffered some hits, although losses were minimal. Chauhan said while the fighting had ceased, the Indian government had made it clear that it would respond 'precisely and decisively should there be any further terror attacks emanating from Pakistan'. 'So that has its own dynamics as far [as] the armed forces are concerned. It will require us to be prepared 24/7,' he said. Chauhan also said that although Pakistan is closely allied with China, which borders India in the north and the northeast, there was no sign of any actual help from Beijing during the conflict. 'While this was unfolding from [April] 22nd onwards, we didn't find any unusual activity in the operational or tactical depth of our northern borders, and things were generally all right,' he told Reuters. Asked whether China may have provided any satellite imagery or other real-time intelligence to Pakistan during the conflict, Chauhan said such imagery was commercially available and could have been procured from China as well as other sources.
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- General
- Al Jazeera
India top general admits ‘losses' in recent conflict with Pakistan
India's chief of defence staff says the country suffered initial losses in the air during a recent military conflict with neighbouring Pakistan, but declined to give details. 'What was important is, why did these losses occur, and what we will do after that,' General Anil Chauhan told the Reuters news agency on Saturday on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore. India and Pakistan were engaged in a four-day conflict this month, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10. More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire on both sides, but there are competing claims on the casualties. India says more than 100 'terrorists' were killed in its 'precision strikes' on several 'terror camps' across Pakistan, which rejects the claim, saying more than 30 Pakistani civilians were killed in the Indian attacks. New Delhi, meanwhile, says nearly two dozen civilians were killed on the Indian side, most of them in Indian-administered Kashmir, along the disputed border. The fighting between the two nuclear powers was triggered by an attack on tourists in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 that killed 26 people, almost all of them tourists. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for supporting the armed group behind the attack, an allegation Islamabad denied. During their conflict, Pakistan had also claimed to have downed at least five Indian military jets, including at least three Rafale fighters. But Chauhan on Saturday dismissed it as 'absolutely incorrect', confirming his country had lost at least one aircraft. 'I think what is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down,' he told Bloomberg TV in a separate interview in Singapore. On May 11, a day after the ceasefire, India's Air Marshal AK Bharti told reporters in New Delhi that 'all our pilots are back home', adding that 'we are in a combat scenario, and that losses are a part of combat'. Chauhan said on Saturday India switched tactics after suffering losses in the air on the first day of conflict and established a decisive advantage. 'So we rectified tactics and then went back on the [May] 7th, 8th and 10th in large numbers to hit airbases deep inside Pakistan, penetrated all their air defences with impunity, carried out precision strikes,' he said. Islamabad has denied it suffered any losses of planes but has acknowledged its airbases suffered some hits, although losses were minimal. Chauhan said while the fighting had ceased, the Indian government had made it clear that it would respond 'precisely and decisively should there be any further terror attacks emanating from Pakistan'. 'So that has its own dynamics as far [as] the armed forces are concerned. It will require us to be prepared 24/7,' he said. Chauhan also said that although Pakistan is closely allied with China, which borders India in the north and the northeast, there was no sign of any actual help from Beijing during the conflict. 'While this was unfolding from [April] 22nd onwards, we didn't find any unusual activity in the operational or tactical depth of our northern borders, and things were generally all right,' he told Reuters. Asked whether China may have provided any satellite imagery or other real-time intelligence to Pakistan during the conflict, Chauhan said such imagery was commercially available and could have been procured from China as well as other sources.
New York Times
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
India and Pakistan's Air Battle Is Over. Their Water War Has Begun.
The drones and missiles have been stilled after India and Pakistan's brief but intense military battle this month. But the two neighbors have turned up the heat on another longstanding conflict, over the sharing of water. A day after terrorists killed 26 people on the Indian side of Kashmir in April, igniting tensions that would lead to four days of escalating conflict, the Indian government said it would suspend a vital pact governing rivers that flow from India into Pakistan. That agreement, the Indus Waters Treaty, covers a river system that tens of millions of people rely on for their livelihoods and survival. India, which linked the April attack to Pakistan, said it would step away from its obligations under the pact until its nemesis 'credibly and irrevocably' renounced support for cross-border terrorism. Pakistan, which denied any role in the terrorist attack, called India's move an 'act of war.' India's targeting of water, however, is not just about combating terrorism, analysts say. The Indian government has been frustrated by the 65-year-old treaty, believing it has favored Pakistan from the start, and analysts say that India is hoping to force Pakistan to renegotiate it. That could allow India to better use its allotted waters to meet the needs of its immense population and adapt to climate change. India's decision to put the agreement 'in abeyance' — and the vague conditions it has imposed on Pakistan to reverse that — has injected a note of uncertainty into the future of a treaty that has survived multiple wars and conflicts. A full breakdown would have serious consequences for both countries, especially Pakistan, an arid land with few other sources of water. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Al Arabiya
4 days ago
- General
- Al Arabiya
Pakistan, India close to completing border troop reduction: Senior Pakistani general
Pakistan and India are close to reducing the troop build up along their border to levels before conflict erupted between the nuclear-armed neighbors this month, a top Pakistani military official told Reuters on Friday, although he warned the crisis had increased the risk of escalation in the future. Both sides used fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery in four days of clashes, their worst fighting in decades, before a ceasefire was announced. The spark for the latest fighting between the old enemies was an April 22 attack in Indian Kashmir that killed 26 people, most of them tourists. New Delhi blamed the incident on 'terrorists' backed by Pakistan, a charge denied by Islamabad. On May 7, India launched missiles at what it said were 'terrorist infrastructure' sites across the border and as Pakistan responded with its own attacks, both countries built up additional forces along the frontier. General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, Pakistan's chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said the two militaries had started the process of drawing down troop levels. 'We have almost come back to the pre-22nd April situation... we are approaching that, or we must have approached that by now,' said Mirza, the most senior Pakistani military official to speak publicly since the conflict. India's ministry of defence and the office of the Indian chief of defence staff did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the remarks by Mirza. Mirza, who is in Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue forum, said while there was no move towards nuclear weapons during this conflict, it was a dangerous situation. 'Nothing happened this time,' he said. 'But you can't rule out any strategic miscalculation at any time, because when the crisis is on, the responses are different.' He also said the risk of escalation in the future had increased since the fighting this time was not limited to the disputed territory of Kashmir, the scenic region in the Himalayas that both nations rule in part but claim in full. The two sides attacked military installations in their mainland's but neither has acknowledged any serious damage. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned Pakistan this month that New Delhi would target 'terrorist hideouts' across the border again if there were new attacks on India. 'Dangerous trend' The two countries have fought three major wars, two of them over Kashmir, and numerous armed skirmishes since both were born out of British colonial India in 1947. India blames Pakistan for an insurgency in its part of Kashmir that began in 1989 and has killed tens of thousands. Pakistan says it provides only moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris seeking self-determination. 'This (conflict) lowers the threshold between two countries who are contiguous nuclear the future, it will not be restricted to the disputed territory. It would come down to (the) whole of India and (the) whole of Pakistan,' Mirza said. 'This is a very dangerous trend.' Reuters has reported that the rapid escalation of hostilities ended in part because of behind-the-scenes diplomacy involving the US, India and Pakistan, and the key role played by Washington in brokering peace. India has denied any third-party role in the ceasefire and said that any engagement between India and Pakistan has to be bilateral. But Mirza warned that international mediation might be difficult in the future because of a lack of crisis management mechanisms between the countries. 'The time window for the international community to intervene would now be very less, and I would say that damage and destruction may take place even before that time window is exploited by the international community,' he said. Pakistan was open to dialogue, he added, but beyond a crisis hotline between the directors general of military operations and some hotlines at the tactical level on the border, there was no other communication between the two countries. India's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday 'talks and terror don't go together' in response to a question on the possibility of dialogue with Pakistan. Mirza said there were no backchannel discussions, or informal talks, to ease tensions. He also said he had no plans to meet General Anil Chauhan, India's chief of defense staff, who is also in Singapore for the Shangri-La forum. 'These issues can only be resolved by dialogue and consultations, on the table. They cannot be resolved on the battlefield,' Mirza said.
Al Arabiya
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Israel army says it began ‘extensive ground operations' in Gaza
The Israeli army said it launched 'extensive ground operations' across the Gaza Strip on Sunday as part of a newly expanded campaign it says is aimed at defeating Hamas. The military said that over the past day, both active duty and reservist troops had 'begun extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip,' adding they had 'eliminated dozens of terrorists, dismantled terrorist infrastructure sites... and are currently being deployed in key positions.'
