India's clash with Pakistan sees use of Chinese missiles, French jets, Israeli drones and more

BANGKOK (AP) — India's missile and bomb strikes on targets in Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir have spiked tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, with Pakistan's leader calling the attacks an act of war.

Claims about the initial attack and the aftermath have differed widely, with neither India nor Pakistan releasing many specific details. Making the ongoing conflict even more confusing, the internet has been "flooded with disinformation, false claims, and manipulated photos and videos,” the Soufan Center think tank said.

“This information warfare is compounded by both sides’ commitment to save face,” it said.

With ongoing fighting, it has been impossible to independently verify many of the claims, but some information can be gleaned from official statements and paired with what is known to gain greater insight into the clash:

Pakistan on Saturday said it launched hypersonic missiles from a JF-17 Thunder jet, an aircraft built by China in collaboration with Pakistan, and destroyed a Russian-built S-400 air defense system in India's border Punjab state.

India denied the site was hit, saying it would provide evidence later.

Praveen Donthi, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the two sides are “effectively at war” even though they have not yet called it that, and an “explosion of disinformation stemming from a lack of official confirmation” is causing panic among civilians, particularly among those living in border areas.

“It's become a remorseless race for military one-upmanship,” he said.

Pakistan also said Saturday it used its Fatah-II missiles to target an Indian missile storage facility and two airbases, an attack acknowledged by Indian officials who said they targeted Pakistani military bases in retaliation.

It was not clear what damage was caused in either attack, though Pakistan claimed to have intercepted most of the Indian missiles and was, in turn, retaliating for India's retaliatory strike.

Hours after India's attack early Wednesday, in retaliation for last month's massacre of tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir, Pakistan's military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif claimed the Pakistan air force had shot down five Indian attack aircraft: three French-made Rafales, a Russian-made SU30MKI and a Russian-made MiG-29.

Pakistan's air force suffered no casualties, and that all of its aircraft returned safely to base, he said.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif repeated the claim, saying the Pakistan air force had the opportunity to shoot down 10 Indian planes, but exercised restraint and downed only the five that had fired on Pakistani targets.

He told Parliament that overall 80 Indian planes had been involved in the attack.

India, meantime, has not acknowledged any losses, though debris from three aircraft came down in at least three areas.

India has all three types of jets among its more-than 700 combat capable fighter aircraft, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies' Military Balance report.

All three aircraft are fighters with the capability of carrying bombs or missiles for ground attacks.

Pakistan and India have both said their planes did not leave their home airspace, suggesting that if Pakistan's account is accurate, rather than a dogfight in the skies over Kashmir, Pakistani pilots fired multiple air-to-air missiles over a long distance to take down Indian planes.

Presuming India fired back, even though Pakistan said none of its planes were hit, the aerial skirmish would have been quite the show. But there have been no eyewitness reports or video to emerge on social media.

What is known for sure is that Indian planes were in the air and attacked at least nine targets and debris from three has been found.

It's also plausible Pakistan used surface to air missiles to hit Indian planes, which the war in Ukraine has shown to be very effective and would not have meant risking any of its own planes.

Pakistan has a wide range of such missiles, primarily Chinese-made.

Pakistan's air force includes U.S.-made F-16s, the French Mirage and the new Chinese-built J-10C, as well as the JF-17.

In addition to American air-to-air missiles, Pakistan also has several Chinese products in its arsenal, including the PL-12 and PL-15, both of which can be used to fire at targets beyond visual range.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told lawmakers it was the J-10C that shot down the Indian aircraft, raising the likelihood that Chinese-built missiles were also employed.

“It's interesting that Pakistan is saying it is using Chinese jets that it has imported from China to shoot down Indian aircraft,” said Lisa Curtis, director of the Indo-Pacific security program at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank.

In 2019, during the rivals' previous military confrontation, “it was a Pakistani F-16 provided by the United States that was used to shoot down an Indian aircraft,” Curtis said in a conference call. “It’s interesting to see that Pakistan is relying more on its Chinese equipment than it did six years ago.”

The news convinced traders with shares in AVIC Chengdu Aircraft, which builds both the J-10C and J-17, to post large gains Wednesday and Thursday on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

The stock of Dassault Aviation, the maker of the Rafale jet, which is among those Pakistan claims to have shot down, dropped sharply on Wednesday on the Paris Stock Exchange, though it had recovered by close on Thursday.

India hasn't talked about what assets were involved in the attacks. The Indian Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted at least nine sites “where terrorist attacks against India have been planned.”

India showed video of eight of the strikes at a briefing on Wednesday, four in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and four in Pakistan.

Pakistan has said 31 civilians were killed, including women and children, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and the country’s Punjab province, and that buildings hit included two mosques.

Both sides have talked about missile strikes, but it was clear from the video that bombs also were dropped on some targets, possibly from drones. In addition to claiming the five Indian aircraft shot down, Pakistan also said it downed an unspecified number of drones on Wednesday.

Indian officials said the strikes were precision attacks, and from the videos shown it appeared specific areas of installations were targeted with individual missiles or bombs, rather than widespread areas.

Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Aijaz Hussain and Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi contributed to this report.

Debris of an aircraft lie in the compound of a mosque at Pampore in Pulwama district of Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Local residents stand outside a mosque of an Islamic seminary partially damaged by a suspected Indian missile attack, outskirts of Bahawalpur, Pakistan, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Asim Tanveer)

A Pakistani man reads morning news paper with front page story about Pakistan and India military tension, at a market in Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)

Shivsena party worker holding Indian national flag rally's in support of the Indian Army as they celebrate the success of 'Operation Sindoor', in Mumbai in Mumbai, India, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

Kashmiri villager Mohammad Rafiq displays shrapnel of a shell as he sits near a crater outside his damaged house following overnight shelling from Pakistan at Gingal village in Uri district, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

A local resident shows a piece of shell fired by Indian forces, at his damaged house in Haveli Kahuta, a district of Pakistan's administered Kashmir, Friday, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Rashid Ahmed)

Kashmiri men watch news on a cell phone at Dal lake in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powellsaid Sunday the Department of Justice has served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony this summer about the Fed’s building renovations.

The move represents an unprecedented escalation in President Donald Trump’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he's repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers. The renewed fight will likely rattle financial markets Monday and could over time escalate borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans.

The subpoenas relate to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, the Fed chair said, regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings, a project Trump has criticized as excessive.

Here's the latest:

Stocks are falling on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Department of Justice had served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony about the Fed’s building renovations.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3% in early trading Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 384 points, or 0.8%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.2%.

Powell characterized the threat of criminal charges as pretexts to undermine the Fed’s independence in setting interest rates, its main tool for fighting inflation. The threat is the latest escalation in President Trump’s feud with the Fed.

▶ Read more about the financial markets

She says she had “a very good conversation” with Trump on Monday morning about topics including “security with respect to our sovereignties.”

Last week, Sheinbaum had said she was seeking a conversation with Trump or U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the U.S. president made comments in an interview that he was ready to confront drug cartels on the ground and repeated the accusation that cartels were running Mexico.

Trump’s offers of using U.S. forces against Mexican cartels took on a new weight after the Trump administration deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Sheinbaum was expected to share more about their conversation later Monday.

A leader of the Canadian government is visiting China this week for the first time in nearly a decade, a bid to rebuild his country’s fractured relations with the world’s second-largest economy — and reduce Canada’s dependence on the United States, its neighbor and until recently one of its most supportive and unswerving allies.

The push by Prime Minster Mark Carney, who arrives Wednesday, is part of a major rethink as ties sour with the United States — the world’s No. 1 economy and long the largest trading partner for Canada by far.

Carney aims to double Canada’s non-U.S. exports in the next decade in the face of President Trump’s tariffs and the American leader’s musing that Canada could become “the 51st state.”

▶ Read more about relations between Canada and China

The comment by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson came in response to a question at a regular daily briefing. President Trump has said he would like to make a deal to acquire Greenland, a semiautonomous region of NATO ally Denmark, to prevent Russia or China from taking it over.

Tensions have grown between Washington, Denmark and Greenland this month as Trump and his administration push the issue and the White House considers a range of options, including military force, to acquire the vast Arctic island.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that an American takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO.

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An ExxonMobil spokesperson did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment.

▶ Read more about Trump’s comments on ExxonMobil

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The object, which the White House did not describe, was discovered during security sweeps in advance of Trump’s arrival at Palm Beach International Airport.

“A further investigation was warranted and the presidential motorcade route was adjusted accordingly,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Sunday.

The president, when asked about the package by reporters, said, “I know nothing about it.”

Anthony Guglielmi, the spokesman for U.S. Secret Service, said the secondary route was taken just as a precaution and that “that is standard protocol.”

▶ Read more about the “suspicious object”

Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no direct reaction to Trump’s comments, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to foreign diplomats in Tehran, insisted “the situation has come under total control” in fiery remarks that blamed Israel and the U.S. for the violence, without offering evidence.

▶ Read more about the possible negotiations and follow live updates

Fed Chair Powell said Sunday the DOJ has served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony this summer about the Fed’s building renovations.

The move represents an unprecedented escalation in Trump’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he has repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers. The renewed fight will likely rattle financial markets Monday and could over time escalate borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans.

The subpoenas relate to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, the Fed chair said, regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings, a project that Trump has criticized as excessive.

Powell on Sunday cast off what has up to this point been a restrained approach to Trump’s criticisms and personal insults, which he has mostly ignored. Instead, Powell issued a video statement in which he bluntly characterized the threat of criminal charges as simple “pretexts” to undermine the Fed’s independence when it comes to setting interest rates.

▶ Read more about the subpoenas

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters while in flight on Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

President Donald Trump waves after arriving on Air Force One from Florida, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)