Destroyed 12-13 Pak jets in Op Sindoor: IAF chief

Air Chief Marshal AP Singh on Friday said that Pakistan lost as many as 12 to 13 aircraft, including fighter jets such as US-made F-16s and Chinese-origin JF-17s, to the Indian Air Force's precision strikes on ground and in the air during Operation Sindoor, the four-day military confrontation between the two countries in May.

- Rahul Singh

At his annual press conference ahead of the 93rd IAF Day on October 8, Singh said there were “signs” that India destroyed 6-7 aircraft in its ground strikes on Pakistan airfields and another six jets in the air. He also dismissed Islamabad's claims of downing Indian jets as “fanciful tales” aimed at delivering a message to its domestic audience.

This is the first time that a senior military leader has disclosed that the number of Pakistani jets that India destroyed during Operation Sindoor breached single digits.

The chief of the air staff also said the IAF had the capability to accurately target new terror hubs coming up in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) where groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) have begun relocating their bases after Indian forces bombed nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and killed at least 100 terrorists in the early hours of May 7 when Operation Sindoor was launched.

The IAF, he said, struck a large number of Pakistani airfields and installations.

"What we have gathered from intelligence reports is that on ground, because of these strikes, radars were destroyed in at least four places, command and control centres at two places, and runways damaged at two places. Three of their hangars in three different stations have been damaged. In that hangar, as well as on tarmac, we have signs of (hits on) one C-130 class of aircraft, one AEW&C (airborne early warning and control) class of aircraft...and at least four to five fighter aircraft, most likely F-16s, because that place happened to be where F-16s would have been under maintenance at that time," Singh said, adding one surface-toair missile system was also destroyed on ground.