Thursday Briefing

Part of a damaged aircraft near Srinagar, in Indian-controlled Kashmir, yesterday. Credit…Tauseef Mustafa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Will the India-Pakistan conflict escalate further?

A number of Indian aircraft went down in Pakistan after India conducted airstrikes on Pakistan and the Pakistani-held area of Kashmir — two or three, according to Indian officials, Western diplomats and local media, and five planes and at least one drone, according to Pakistan.

The question now is whether Pakistan will decide that it must answer India’s strikes with an attack of its own on Indian soil.

For now, Pakistan says it is keeping all its options open. But diplomats and analysts expressed some hope that an all-out war could be averted. Pakistan’s defense minister said he would welcome further U.S. efforts to help defuse his country’s crisis with India.

The Pakistani military said more than 20 people had been killed and dozens injured after India hit six places in Pakistani-held Kashmir and in Punjab Province. Residents of the Indian side of Kashmir said at least 10 people were killed by shelling from the Pakistani side.

Even as India hailed its “Operation Sindoor” attack on Pakistan as a victory in response to the terrorist attack in Kashmir last month that killed 26 people, evidence grew that their forces may have taken heavy losses.

Credit…Source: Pakistani military (strike locations) By The New York Times