Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan has become the first Indian official to confirm that the Indian Air Force (IAF) suffered the loss of some fighter jets during clashes with Pakistan on May 7.

Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg TV in Singapore on Saturday, May 30, during the Shangri-La Dialogue, General Chauhan acknowledged the losses but declined to specify how many jets were downed that night.

“What is important is that–not the jet being down, but why they were being down,” Chauhan said, stressing that understanding and correcting operational errors was more crucial than focusing on the numbers.

He added, “Why they were down, what mistakes were made – that are important. Numbers are not important.”

General Chauhan also dismissed Pakistan’s claims of shooting down six Indian fighter jets, including three Rafales, as “absolutely incorrect.”

Earlier this month, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had asserted that his country downed six Indian warplanes on the first night of the four-day conflict.

The Indian government had previously refrained from confirming these losses.

During earlier official briefings, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Air Marshal A.K. Bharti, Director-General of Air Operations, did not deny the losses. Air Marshal Bharti had commented that combat situations inevitably involve losses, but had declined to provide specifics. General Chauhan’s remarks mark the first public confirmation by an Indian defence official of the IAF’s setbacks in the engagement.

Highlighting that India had drawn critical lessons from the initial setbacks, Chauhan noted that tactical mistakes had been identified and corrected promptly.

“The good part is that we are able to understand the tactical mistake which we made, remedy it, rectify it and then implement it again after two days and flew all our jets again, targeting at long range,” he said.