General Anil Chauhan, India’s chief of defence staff, has admitted that an unspecified number of fighter jets were shot down during its conflict with Pakistan last month. The acknowledgement of aerial losses by the country’s highest ranking general comes weeks after the two South Asian neighbours were engaged in their heaviest fighting in decades,

General Chauhan confirmed that Indian Air Force (IAF) jets were downed in the opening hours of the conflict, but did not say how many were lost.