Pakistan downed at least one IAF Rafale jet: French official

At least one Rafale fighter jet operated by the Indian Air Force (IAF) was downed by Pakistan, a high-ranking French intelligence official told CNN, 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.

The French official told CNN that French authorities were looking into whether more than one Rafale jets were shot down by Pakistan overnight.

Earlier, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry confirmed that at least 31 innocent civilians were martyred and 57 others sustained injuries in a series of overnight Indian air strikes on Pakistani territory.

Addressing national and international media, Lt Gen Chaudhry condemned the Indian strikes, labelling them a “cowardly attack” deliberately carried out under the cover of darkness to target unarmed civilians in populated areas.

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“Our enemy is so cowardly that instead of confronting our military forces head-on, it attacks unarmed civilians and populated areas in the darkness,” he stated.

Lt Gen Chaudhry said that India’s conduct revealed a dangerous shift in strategy — moving from the use of terrorist proxies to direct military aggression. He argued that India's desperation had escalated into blatant acts of terrorism.