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7 jets shot down: Trump changes claim on planes downed during India-Pak conflict
Donald Trump said that seven jets were shot down during the military conflict between India and Pakistan, but this is not the number he earlier claimed.
US President Donald Trump on Monday again repeated his claim of brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan back in May, adding that seven jets were shot down during the military conflict.
However, this is not the number of jets he said were shot down earlier. Last month, the Republican said five planes were downed during the conflict as "two serious nuclear countries" hit each other.
Like last time, this time too, Trump did not specify which country shot down how many jets. His fresh remarks on the subject come weeks after Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh confirmed that India shot down five Pakistani fighter jets during Operation Sindoor, the military action targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The Air Chief Marshal had said that the jets were shot down by the S-400 air defence systems, and called it the largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill.
Apart from the five jets, one large Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) or early warning aircraft was also destroyed, he had said.
'Was going to be a nuclear war'
Further, repeating his claim of brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan and "stopping" a nuclear war, Donald Trump said on Monday, "The war with India and Pakistan was the next level that was going to be a nuclear war... They already shot down 7 jets - that was raging."
He again linked the truce between the two bordering nations to trade, saying he gave both countries 24 hours to settle the fight, threatening the US would withhold trade if they didn't stop. "I said, 'You want to trade? We are not doing any trade or anything with you if you keep fighting, you've got 24 hours to settle it'. They said, 'Well, there's no more war going on. ' I used that on numerous occasions. I used trade and whatever I had to use..." the Republican said.
Trump's remarks on the India-Pak conflict are the latest in a series of such claims repeated multiple times, ever since the two countries reached an agreement on cessation of hostilities on May 10.
The truce was declared days after the launch of Operation Sindoor, launched to avenge the killing of 26 civilians in a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22.
New Delhi has rejected Trump's mediation claim several times in the past, asserting that ceasefire was reached after a call from Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) to their Indian counterpart. India maintains that the agreement was reached bilaterally, with no third-party intervention.
