United States President Donald Trump on Friday claimed that five jets were shot down during the conflict between India and Pakistan in May, reported ANI. He also repeated his claim that Washington had helped settle the tensions between the two countries.

New Delhi has in the past rejected Trump’s assertions about the role of the US in halting the firings.

“In fact, planes were being shot out of the air,” the US president was quoted as saying at a White House dinner with Republican lawmakers. “Five, five, four or five, but I think five jets were shot down actually.”

He did not specify which countries the aircraft belonged to.

Tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad had escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The strikes were in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 persons on April 22.

The Pakistan Army retaliated to Indian strikes by repeatedly shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. At least 22 Indian civilians and seven defence personnel were killed.

On May 10, India and Pakistan reached an “understanding” to halt firing following a four-day conflict.

India has acknowledged suffering losses during the initial phase of the conflict, but has not disclosed the number of aircraft lost.

On May 31, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan made remarks that some interpreted as an indirect acknowledgement of aircraft losses by the Indian Air Force during the conflict, when he said that what was important was “not the jet being down, but why they were being down”.

“Why they were down, what mistakes were made – that are important,” Chauhan told Bloomberg. “Numbers are not important.”

He had also said that Pakistan’s claims of having shot down six Indian Air Force fighter jets were “absolutely incorrect”.

On June 10, Captain Shiv Kumar, India’s defence attaché to Indonesia, said that the Indian Air Force had lost fighter jets to Pakistan during Operation Sindoor on May 7 because of the “constraint given by the political leadership”.

“Suppression of enemy air defences and destruction of enemy air defences is very very important…” Kumar said. “I may not agree…that India lost so many aircraft, but I do agree we did lose some aircraft.”

He added: “And that happened only because of the constraint given by the political leadership to not attack the military establishment or [Pakistani] air defences”.

Kumar had said that the tactics were changed after the loss and “we went for their military installations”.

He made the statement in response to Pakistan’s claim of having downed six aircraft, including three Rafales. The claims made by Islamabad have not been independently verified.

On July 7, Defence Secretary RK Singh said that it was incorrect to say that multiple Rafale jets of the Indian Air Force were shot down by Pakistan.

“You have used the term Rafales in the plural, I can assure you that is absolutely not correct,” Singh told CNBC-TV18. “Pakistan suffered losses many times over India in both human and material terms and more than 100 terrorists.”

On its part, Pakistan has publicly claimed it shot down Indian fighter jets during air-to-air combat, Al Jazeera reported. While Islamabad denied losing any of its aircraft, it acknowledged that several of its airbases were struck during the hostilities.

New Delhi had announced its decision to stop military action with Islamabad minutes after Trump claimed on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to the ceasefire.

The US president has repeatedly claimed credit for brokering the ceasefire between the two countries.

However, India has said that the decision to stop firing was taken bilaterally and that there was no intervention by the US.

Congress demands Modi’s statement

On Saturday, the Congress demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi make a statement in Parliament after Trump’s claim of five jets having been shot down.

Party leader Jairam Ramesh stated that Trump has repeated claims about brokering peace between the two countries for the 24th time now.

“The sensational new revelation by President Trump this time around is that five jets may have been downed,” Ramesh said.

“The prime minister, who has had years of friendship and huglomacy with President Trump going back to 'Howdy Modi' in September 2019 and 'Namaste Trump' in February 2020, has to now himself make a clear and categorical statement in Parliament on what President Trump has been claiming over the past 70 days," the Congress leader added.