Staff Reporter:
After a French senior spy confirmed Pakistan downed at least one India-operated Rafale jet by using Chinese jets, two US officials have backed up the claims.
The growing Western assertions validate the lethality of Chinese fighter jets, and the adeptness of Pakistani air warriors, while proving much of the Indian government and media hype over the latest battlefield gains as “lies.”
A top Chinese-made Pakistani fighter shot down at least two Indian military aircraft on Wednesday, two US officials have said, according to Reuters report uploaded late-Thursday, marking a major milestone for Beijing’s advanced fighter jet.
One US official, preferring anonymity, told Reuters there was high confidence that Pakistan had used the Chinese-made J-10 aircraft to launch air-to-air missiles against Indian fighter jets – bringing down at least two.
Another US official said at least one Indian jet that was shot down was a French-made Rafale fighter aircraft.
Delhi has not acknowledged the loss of any of its planes and instead said it carried out successful strikes against what it said was “terrorist” infrastructure inside Pakistan.
In France, Rafale manufacturer Dassault Aviation and the MBDA consortium, which makes the Meteor air-to-air missile, could not immediately be reached for comment on a public holiday.
French acknowledgement
A high-ranking French intelligence official told CNN on Wednesday that one Rafale fighter jet operated by the Indian Air Force was downed by Pakistan, in what would mark the first time that one of the sophisticated French-made warplanes has been lost in combat.
Pakistan claimed earlier today to have shot down five Indian Air Force jets in retaliation for Indian strikes, including three Rafales. Indian officials are yet to respond to the claim.
The French official told CNN that French authorities were looking into whether more than one Rafale jets were shot down by Pakistan overnight.
Pictures taken of parts of an aircraft that crashed in Indian-administered Kashmir show the label of a French manufacturer, but experts said it was not possible to say whether the part came from a Rafale aircraft.
Dassault Aviation, the French manufacturer of the jet, has not responded to CNN’s requests for comment.
