India strikes Pakistan over tourist killings, Pakistan says Indian jets downed

India attacked Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir on Wednesday, and Pakistan said it had shot down five Indian fighter jets in the worst fighting in more than two decades between the nuclear-armed enemies.

India said it struck nine Pakistani "terrorist infrastructure" sites, some of them linked to an attack by Islamist militants on Hindu tourists that killed 26 people in Indian Kashmir last month. Islamabad said six Pakistani locations were targeted, and that none of them were militant camps. Eight people killed, it said.

Indian forces attacked the headquarters of Islamist militant groups Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Indian defence source told Reuters.

"India has demonstrated considerable restraint in the selection of targets and the method of execution," the Indian defence ministry said in a statement.

Pakistan said Indian missiles hit three sites, and a military spokesperson told Reuters five Indian aircraft had been shot down, a claim not confirmed by India.

However, four local government sources in Indian Kashmir told Reuters that three fighter jets had crashed in separate areas of the Himalayan region during the night.

Reuters