The air battle between the Indian and Pakistani air forces on the night of 7 May was one of the largest and longest in modern aviation history. This is reported by CNN with reference to an unnamed senior official in the Pakistani security services.
According to the interlocutor of the channel, 125 fighter jets took part in the air battle, which lasted more than an hour. The two sides exchanged missile strikes at a distance of more than 160 kilometres, but neither aircraft left their country’s airspace. The Indian aircraft had to make several approaches to the targets, according to the source.
According to the Pakistani military, India lost five fighter jets in the air battle. Indian authorities did not confirm this information.
On the evening of 6 May, India announced a military operation “Sindur”, in which the country’s armed forces launched missile strikes against nine “terrorist infrastructure” sites in Pakistan and the Pakistani part of Kashmir. Pakistan’s military retaliated by striking five locations in India. According to Islamabad, 31 people were killed in Indian strikes in Pakistan. Indian authorities said the Pakistani strikes killed 12 people in the Indian part of Kashmir.
The military conflict was preceded by a terrorist attack on 22 April near the town of Pahalgam in the Indian-controlled part of Jammu and Kashmir state. Twenty-six tourists were killed in the terrorist attack. The Resistance Front, a group affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba Islamist organisation from Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack.