Details on the fighting before the supposed ceasefire Trump helped broker. I didn’t include the videos which appeared to mostly be from Pakistanis, but a lot of “allahu akbar” can be heard bringing into contrast the religious differences between the Muslim Pakistanis and the Hindu Indians.
India and Pakistan exchanged more strikes overnight in the latest escalation in the crisis that was sparked by the April 22 terrorist attack on Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir which New Delhi blamed Islamabad for.
Early on May 10, the Pakistani military said that India fired missiles at key bases in Pakistan, including an air base close to Islamabad.
The majority of the missiles were intercepted, military spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said, adding that the missiles that came down did not cause damage.
“India hit Nur Khan Air Base, Shorkot Air Base and Murid Air Base from their jets, all were intercepted. India also launched missiles and drones at Afghanistan,” the spokesman said in a live broadcast aired by state television.
Pakistani air defenses “successfully intercepted cruise missiles fired at Rafiqui Air Force Base in Shorkot,” Lt. Gen. Chaudhry added.
While the spokesman claimed that there was no damage, footage posted online showed what appears to be a C-130 military cargo plane at Nur Khan Air Base on fire.
Just a few hours after the missile attack, the Pakistani military announced that it began a retaliatory operation against India.
“Pakistan responds!!” the military announced in a brief statement, calling its retaliation “Operation Bunyanun Marsoos,” a reference to a Quranic verse, and it means “unbreakable wall.”
“Brahmos storage site has been taken out,” the military said, adding that attacks on various other places are in progress.
The Pakistani military said that, in an “eye for eye” retaliation, they targeted the Indian air bases that were used to launch missiles on Pakistan.
The strikes hit several targets in India and Indian-administered Kashmir, including Brigade Headquarters KG Top, Field supply depot Uri, Artillery Gun Position Derangyari, BrahMos battery site Nagrota, Udhampur airfield, Pathankot airfield and Suratgarh airfield.
Videos released by the Pakistani military showed multiple rocket launchers firing multiple Fatah-1 precision-guided artillery rockets. The locally-made munition is guided by a GPS-aided inertial navigation system with a range of 140 kilometers and a circular error probable down to 30 meters.
Most of these sites are near or along the so-called Line of Control (LoC), the facto border that divides the disputed Kashmir region between New Delhi and Islamabad. Pathankot, in Punjab state, and Suratgarh, in Rajasthan state, are airfields inside India’s undisputed borders.
Pakistani media later reported that an S-400 long-range air defense system was targeted in Udhampur Footage posted to social networks showed some smoke near the airfield.
Later on in the morning, the Indian military said that it had intercepted drones “and other munitions” fired by Pakistan, without providing specific numbers.
“Pakistan’s blatant escalation with drone strikes and other munitions continues along our western borders,” the Indian military said in a statement.
Multiple “armed drones” were spotted flying over a military base in Amritsar in Punjab in the early morning, the military continued .
“The hostile drones were instantly engaged and destroyed by our air defense units,” it added.
In addition to the exchange of strikes, Indian and Pakistani forces exchanged artillery fire along the LoC all morning. In Pakistan-administered Kashmir, 11 people were reportedly killed. Meanwhile, in the Indian-administered part of the region, a local official was killed.
The United States and China have already called for de-escalation. However, the crisis sparked by the Pahalgam and the Indian strikes later on May 7, appears to be still far from being over. Despite this, an all-out war between the two nuclear countries remains highly unlikely.