Modi says India has only paused military action after it and Pakistan stop firing at each other

NEW DELHI (AP) — India has only “paused" its military action and will “retaliate on its own terms” if there is any future terror attack on the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday in his first public comments since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire over the weekend.

Modi spoke after Indian and Pakistani authorities said there was no firing reported overnight along the heavily militarized region between their countries — the first time in recent days the nations were not shooting at each other.

The escalating hostilities between the nuclear-armed rivals after a deadly attack on tourists in Kashmir had threatened regional peace. India accused Pakistan of backing the militants who carried out the massacre, a charge Islamabad denied.

“We will be monitoring every step of Pakistan," Modi said in an address to the nation. He added, in response to international calls for dialogue, that if India talks to Pakistan, it will be only about terrorism and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Both the nations administer parts of Kashmir but claim it in its entirety.

“Terror and talks can’t go together. Nor can terror and trade,” Modi said.

He did not acknowledge U.S. President Donald Trump's offer to mediate. India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all military actions on land, in the air and at the sea on Saturday.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, for his part, said his country agreed to the ceasefire “in the spirit of peace” but will never tolerate violations of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. He spoke during a meeting with the Turkish ambassador, according to a government statement.

Senior military officials from India and Pakistan spoke via a hotline on Monday to assess if the ceasefire was holding and how to ensure implementation.

The Indian army in a statement said the officials discussed the commitment of not “firing a single shot" or initiating aggressive action. The two sides agreed to consider taking immediate measures to reduce the number of troops in border and forward areas, it said.

“The night remained largely peaceful across Jammu and Kashmir, and other areas along the international border,” the Indian army said, adding that no incidents had been reported.

Local government officials in Pakistan-administered Kashmir reported no incidents of cross-border firing along the Line of Control — the de facto border that divides the disputed Kashmir region between India and Pakistan — and said civilians displaced by recent skirmishes were returning to their homes.

Pakistan’s military spokesperson, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif, said late Sunday that Pakistan remains committed to upholding the ceasefire and will not be the first to violate it.

Soon after the ceasefire announcement, Pakistan reopened all airports and restored flight operations. India on Monday reopened the 32 airports that were shut temporarily across its northern and western regions.

The countries' militaries had been engaged in one of their most serious confrontations in decades since Wednesday, when India struck targets inside Pakistan it said were affiliated with militants responsible for the massacre of 26 tourists last month in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The tourists, mostly Indian Hindu men, were killed in front of their families.

The incident first led to tit-for-tat diplomatic measures. The countries expelled each other’s diplomats, shut their airspace and land borders and suspended a crucial water treaty.

After Wednesday's strikes in Pakistan, both sides exchanged heavy fire in Kashmir followed by missile and drone strikes into each other’s territories, mainly targeting military installations and airbases. Dozens of civilians were killed on both sides, the two countries said.

The Indian military on Sunday for the first time claimed its strikes into Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and Pakistan last week killed more than 100 militants, including prominent leaders.

Lt. Gen. Rajiv Ghai, the director general of India’s military operations, said India’s armed forces struck nine militant infrastructure and training facilities, including sites of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group that India blames for carrying out major militant strikes in India.

Ghai also said at least 35 to 40 Pakistani soldiers were killed in clashes along the Line of Control. Five Indian soldiers were also killed, he said.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Thursday said his country’s armed forces had killed 40 to 50 Indian soldiers along the Line of Control. Pakistani military also claimed to have shot down five Indian fighter jets and inflected heavy losses on Indian military installations by targeting 26 locations in India.

The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify the claims made by India and Pakistan.

Air Chief Marshal AK Bharti, the director general India’s air operations, told a news conference on Monday that despite “minor damage (s) incurred, all our military bases and air defense systems continue to remain fully operational, and ready to undertake any further missions, should the need so arise.”

Bharti reiterated that New Delhi’s fight was “with terrorists, and not with Pakistan military or its civilians.”

Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

A man watches the live telecast of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech on television screens at a shopping mall after 'Operation Sindoor' in Mumbai, India, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

People watch the live telecast of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech on television screens at a shopping mall after 'Operation Sindoor' in Mumbai, India, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

Family members watch the live telecast of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech on a television at their residence in Hyderabad, India, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

An Indian muslim shopkeeper watches on a phone the live telecast of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech on television screens, in Prayagraj, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, India, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Indian soldiers patrol as a street vendor takes a nap after India and Pakistan reported no incidents of firing overnight, in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Indian Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers pay tribute during the wreath-laying ceremony of their colleague Deepak Chimngakham, who was killed in cross border Pakistani artillery shelling, in Jammu, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Indian Border Security Force (BSF) Soldiers carry a coffin containing the remains of a fellow soldier Deepak Chimngakham, who was killed in cross border Pakistani artillery shelling, in Jammu, India, Monday, May 12, 2025.(AP Photo/Channi Anand)

A villager cleans the roof of his house damaged by Pakistani artillery shelling at RS Pura, along the International Border, India, Monday, May 12, 2025, after the two countries reported no incidents of firing overnight. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

A girl evacuated from her village along the India Pakistan border takes refuge in a makeshift center in a school at RS Pura, along the International Border, India, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

A girl evacuated from her village along the India Pakistan border takes refuge in a makeshift center in a school at RS Pura, along the International Border, India, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Villagers fill sacks with wheat grains after harvesting at RS Pura, along the International Border, India, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

An empty Pakistani military post is seen from Indian side from Suchetgarh village after the two countries reported no incidents of firing overnight, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

A villager cleans the roof of his house damaged by Pakistani artillery shelling at RS Pura, along the International Border, India, Monday, May 12, 2025, after the two countries reported no incidents of firing overnight. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

An Indian soldier feeds pigeons at a market, day after India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire Saturday following U.S.-led talks to end the most serious military confrontation between the nuclear-armed rivals in decades, in Srinagar, in Indian controlled Kashmir, Sunday, May 11, 2025.(AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — Syrian security forces began deploying Saturday in a neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo after days of intense clashes with Kurdish fighters that killed and wounded dozens.

During the day, several drone strikes were reported in Aleppo, Syria's largest city, leading authorities to stop civilian flights at Aleppo International Airport until further notice, state TV said.

The fighting between the two sides is the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad in December 2024. At least 22 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced.

U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack held talks in Damascus Saturday with top officials, including President Ahmad al-Sharaa, and called on all parties to cease hostilities and return to dialogue.

“Violence risks undermining the progress achieved since the fall of the Assad regime and invites external interference that serves no party’s interests,” Barrack said in comments posted on X. “We urge all parties to exercise maximum restraint, immediately cease hostilities, and return to dialogue,” he added, saying that fighting undermines the deal reached in March between the government and the Kurdish leadership.

He said recent developments in Aleppo were “deeply concerning,” and Washington's objective “remains a sovereign, unified Syria — at peace with itself and its neighbors — where equality, justice, and opportunity are extended to all its people.”

Syria’s state news agency SANA reported that two Kurdish fighters blew themselves up while surrounded by security forces without inflicting casualties, as gunfire was still heard in the neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud around noon Saturday.

On Saturday afternoon, an explosive drone hit the Aleppo Governorate building shortly after two Cabinet ministers and a local official held a news conference on the developments in the city, state TV said. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Syria’s state TV aired the footage, which allegedly showed the drone exploding in the building, and blamed Kurdish fighters for the attack. The main Kurdish-led force in the country denied the reports, saying its fighters did not attack a civilian target.

From the early hours, Syrian security forces were sweeping the neighborhood after calling on residents to stay home for their own safety.

Hundreds of people who fled the neighborhood days earlier were waiting at Sheikh Maqsoud’s entrances to be allowed in once the military operations are over.

Clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish northern neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid, after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge their forces into the national army. Security forces have since captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.

Kurdish forces said at least 12 civilians were killed in the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods in the five days of fighting, while government officials reported at least 10 civilians were killed in the surrounding government-controlled areas.

Syria’s Information Minister Hamza al-Mustafa told state TV that Kurdish fighters used civilian buildings including hospitals and clinics during the fighting. Each side has accused the other of starting the violence and of deliberately targeting civilian neighborhoods and infrastructure, including ambulance crews and hospitals.

The Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, which controls much of Syria’s northeast, said that security forces targeted Khaled Fajr Hospital in Sheikh Maqsoud, putting the lives of patients and paramedics in danger. It called on the international community to intervene to force government forces to stop shelling.

State TV reported that at least one security member was wounded when a drone fired by the SDF struck the neighborhood.

Associated Press journalists said bursts of gunfire could be heard as government-deployed drones flew over Sheikh Maqsoud.

The Syrian military declared the neighborhood a “closed military zone” since Friday night as it launched a “clearing operation.”

On Friday, Barrack discussed the developments in Syria with Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman. The U.S. envoy said Jordan offered support to efforts aimed at consolidating the ceasefire and the peaceful withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from Aleppo.

Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Beirut.

Kurdish citizens wave their group and Lebanese flags during a protest against the Syrian government military operation in Aleppo, in front the United Nations headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Civilians evacuate an area of the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

A Syrian police convoy secures the area just outside the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

A Syrian police convoy gathers in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)