India launches missile attacks on Pakistan : NPR

A city view of Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administrated Kashmir, Wednesday.

Stringer/Reuters

hide caption

toggle caption

Stringer/Reuters

India has launched strikes on several parts of Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled territory, in a dramatic escalation of tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals.

In an assault India dubbed “Operation Sindoor,” the Indian military said it struck nine sites in “Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed.”

The Indian Defense Ministry said the strikes were in response to a militant attack that killed 26 people in India-administered Kashmir last month.

The country’s embassy in Washington wrote in a statement, posted on social media, that India’s actions have been “focused and precise”. “Only known terror camps were targeted,” it claimed.

Tensions have been on the rise between India and Pakistan since April 22, when gunmen killed at least 26 tourists and injured a dozen others in India-administered Kashmir. India accused Pakistan of having a connection to the attack — the worst aimed at Indian civilians in more than a decade.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned India’s attacks, which were overnight in early hours Wednesday local time, and vowed that Pakistan would respond forcefully.

Local residents and members of the media examine a building damaged by a suspected Indian missile attack near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, on Wednesday.

M.D. Mughal/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

M.D. Mughal/AP

“Pakistan has every right to respond forcefully to this act of war imposed by India, and a forceful response is being given,” Sharif said on social media. “The Pakistani nation and the Pakistani armed forces know how to deal with the enemy. We will never allow the enemy to succeed in their nefarious goals.”

President Trump was asked by a reporter about the attack at the White House.

“It’s a shame, we just heard about it just as we were walking in the doors of the Oval,” Trump said. “They’ve been fighting for a long time,” he said. “I just hope it ends very quickly.”

The U.N. secretary-general’s office called for “maximum military restraint” from both India and Pakistan, saying the world cannot afford a war between them.

This is a developing story.