Some details are clouded by contradictory statements and disinformation. But a pattern of rapid escalation brought the conflict to the brink of catastrophe.
The spark for the recent conflict between India and Pakistan was a terrorist attack on the Indian side of Kashmir on April 22. India pointed to its neighbor’s history of sheltering terrorist groups and initiated a cross-border military campaign.
It quickly escalated into four nights of clashes in which the two countries hit deeper into each other’s territory than at any time in half a century, and that was unprecedented in how the use of new-generation technology created a dizzying escalation in the skies.
While the damage on both sides will take weeks and months to tally, particularly in a space of media blackouts and extreme disinformation, here is what we know about how the clashes played out.
In its opening round of airstrikes, in the pre-dawn hours on Wednesday, India struck targets deeper inside the enemy territory than it had in decades, and by all accounts had hit close enough to facilities associated with terrorist groups that it could claim victory.
But it quickly became clear that it had not been a clean strike, but more of a protracted engagement between the two air forces — both sides with their jets in the sky going at each other, with the boundary between them as a line that neither crossed. And India lost aircraft in the exchanges, including at least two of its most advanced fighter jets.
The toll from the strikes was conflicting. India’s defense minister told a parliamentary briefing that they had killed “100 terrorists.” Pakistan put the death toll of India’s initial strikes around 30.
