A US magazine cast serious doubt Friday on India's assertion that it shot down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet during the two nuclear-armed countries' latest bust-up in February.

Citing two unnamed senior US defense officials, Foreign Policy said that US personnel recently conducted a count of Pakistan's F-16s and found none missing.

This contradicts a statement from India's Air Vice Marshal R.G.K Kapoor that India downed a Pakistani F-16 in a dogfight over Kashmir on February 27.

Pakistan denied at the time that this was the case.

Foreign Policy quoted one of the officials as saying that Pakistan invited the US to physically count its F-16 fleet.

Many agreements on the sale of US military hardware to third countries include clauses allowing US officials to regularly inspect the equipment.

Some of the aircraft were not immediately available, so it took US personnel several weeks to account for all of the jets, the official said.

But now the count has been completed, and "all aircraft were present and accounted for," the magazine quoted the official as saying.

The Indian Air Force however said it had proof of shooting down the F16.

"Radio communication of Pakistan Air Force ... confirms that one of the F-16s that attacked India on February 27 did not return to its base," local media quoted IAF sources as saying.

Pakistani armed forces spokesman Asif Ghafoor tweeted that "truth always prevails".

"Time for India to speak truth about false claims & actual losses on their side including the second aircraft shot down by Pakistan," he said in a re-tweet of the Foreign Policy article.

There are no official figures from Pakistan on how many F-16s it has but reported estimates place the number between 70 and 80.

In the dogfight Pakistan had also said it shot down two Indian planes, but India said that it lost only one aircraft.

Initially Pakistan said it had captured two Indian pilots but the military later clarified it had just one pilot in custody, who was later released.

- 'Terror camp' -

The dogfight happened after Pakistani aircraft entered Indian airspace a day after Indian aircraft carried out an airstrike on what it said was a "terrorist training camp" in Pakistan.

That in turn was in response to a suicide bombing on February 14 in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops and which was claimed by a militant group based in Pakistan.

Doubt has also been cast over the success of India's airstrike, which Amit Shah, president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has claimed killed 250.

Pakistan denied that there was any damage or casualties.

Independent reporting by multiple local and international outlets who visited the site also found no evidence of a major terrorist training camp -- or of any infrastructure damage at all.

The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab said that open-source satellite imagery indicated "only impacts in the wooded area, with no damage being visible to the surrounding structures."

But Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose standing has been bolstered by the raids ahead of elections beginning on April 11, has stuck to his guns, while hitting out at those questioning the success of the strike as unpatriotic.

In the next raids, "opposition parties raising these questions can be tied under the jets... so that they can look at the targets," thundered junior foreign minister V.K Singh.

Related Links
News From Across The Stans

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Amid turmoil, NATO in Afghanistan marks anniversary
Kabul (AFP) April 3, 2019
Top NATO officials in Afghanistan on Wednesday heralded key gains from more than 17 years of war, even as the United States seeks to end the grinding conflict that President Donald Trump this week called "ridiculous". Despite hundreds of thousands of troops from NATO having served in Afghanistan since the September 11, 2001 attacks, last year was the bloodiest on record and the Taliban have made gains across the country. The Islamist extremists now control more Afghan territory than any time sin ... read more