Trump repeats India-Pakistan mediation claim, says 11 planes were shot down

Washington,UPDATED: Jul 9, 2026 14:28 IST

US President Donald Trump has repeated his claim that he helped settle the conflict between India and Pakistan, and said 11 planes were shot down during the four-day hostilities in May last year. Speaking on board Air Force One on Wednesday, Trump also said he should have won the Nobel Peace Prize "more than anybody" for settling eight wars, including the one between India and Pakistan.

India has consistently denied any third-party intervention and has maintained that the two sides stopped military action after direct talks between their militaries, without any mediation by the US. Trump, however, claimed the conflict between India and Pakistan "was going to be nuclear".

Without providing details, the US President said that "11 planes were shot down" during the conflict. He did not specify whether the jets were lost by either of the two countries or whether he was referring to combined losses by both sides.

India has said that at least a dozen Pakistani military aircraft, including F-16 jets, were destroyed or damaged in Indian strikes during Operation Sindoor. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 last year, targeting terrorist infrastructure in territories controlled by Pakistan in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.

The strikes triggered four days of intense clashes that ended with an understanding on stopping the military actions on May 10. Trump said Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif credited him with saving 30 to 50 million lives by stopping the Indo-Pak conflict. "Guess what, it could have been a lot more than that," Trump said.

Since then, Trump has repeatedly said the fighting ended following his intervention, while New Delhi has maintained that the halt in military action came after direct talks between the two militaries, without any US mediation.

With PTI Inputs

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