4-5 Jets Were Shot Down During India-Pak Clash, Donald Trump Repeats Ceasefire Claim

US President Donald Trump has made a new claim regarding the India-Pakistan conflict from May, stating that “four or five” fighter jets were shot down during the hostilities.

Speaking at a White House dinner with Republican lawmakers on Friday, Trump also repeated his assertion that his administration brokered a ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed nations by using trade as leverage, a claim previously denied by New Delhi.

“In fact, planes were being shot out of the air. Five, five, four or five, but I think five jets were shot down actually,” Trump said, without specifying whether the jets belonged to India or Pakistan.

This is the second time the US President has claimed credit for de-escalating the conflict. “We have stopped a lot of wars. And these were serious wars. India and Pakistan were going at it… and we got it solved through trade,” he remarked at the dinner.

However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had previously conveyed to President Trump during a phone call that the US had no role in brokering the May 10 ceasefire and that trade was not part of the discussion during the conflict.

The actual number of aircraft lost during the intense but brief hostilities has been a point of contention between the two nations. Following the ceasefire, India’s Air Marshal AK Bharti stated that India had downed many “high-tech” Pakistani jets but did not provide a specific number.

Conversely, Pakistan claimed to have shot down six Indian aircraft, including Rafales, while admitting only “minor damage” to one of its own planes.

India’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, has dismissed Pakistan’s claims while acknowledging that India did lose an unspecified number of fighter jets in the initial stages. He emphasized that the military learned from its mistakes. “What is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down… Why they were down, what mistakes were made – that is important. Numbers are not important,” the CDS had stated.