 "Afghanistan claims to have shot down Pakistan's F-16 fighter jet in the fresh clashes that broke out in the wee hours of February 27. Image Courtesy: @afgdefense/X")
In the wee hours of Friday, Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq — airstrikes targeting Kabul and two other Afghan provinces. The attack came hours after Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan, in the latest escalation of violence.
Shortly after the strikes, social media was flooded with videos of the strikes, with one visual particularly poignant. It showed the burnt remains of a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet, which Afghan forces have claimed to have downed.
- Read the latest on the Pakistan-Afghanistan clashes here
But is it true? Did the Taliban actually down Pakistan’s F-16? Here’s what we know so far.
What do we know about Pak’s strikes against Afghanistan?
On Friday (February 27), Pakistan’s air force launched airstrikes against the Afghan Taliban after “unprovoked firing” from across the border. Islamabad took aim at Afghanistan’s Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia.
According to Pakistan’s state television, PTV, the troops took out two brigade headquarters in Kabul, one corp headquarters and one brigade headquarters in Kandahar, an ammunition depot and logistics base in Kandahar, and a corp headquarters in Paktia.
Following the strikes, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said that 133 Afghan Taliban operatives had been killed and more than 200 were injured. “Afghan Taliban defence targets in Kabul, Paktia, and Kandahar were targeted, with the possibility of further casualties,” he said. “Twenty-seven posts of the Afghan Taliban regime destroyed, nine posts were captured,” he said.
Lauding the troops for its action, Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif the country’s forces “have the full capability to crush any aggressive ambitions”. “There will be no compromise on the defence of the beloved homeland and every aggression will be met with a befitting reply,” he wrote on X.
Has Afghanistan shot down Pakistan’s F-16?
Afghanistan countered Pakistan’s strikes and reports soon emerged that the Taliban fighters shot down a Pakistani fighter jet, namely a F-16, which had crossed into Afghan airspace.
The video, which has since gone viral, shows wreckage of a plane with serial number 85510 and the Pakistani flag painted near the vertical stabiliser.
However, it can’t be determined if the plane in the video is, in fact, a F-16 fighter jet. Social media users have noted that the aircraft’s size and structure do not match an F-16 fighter jet.
Also when one user asked Grok to verify the video, the X’s AI chatbot responded, “No, this video isn’t real as claimed. The wreckage shows a large aircraft with tail number 85510 and Pakistani markings, but it doesn’t resemble an F-16 fighter (wrong size/shape). No credible reports from Reuters, Al Jazeera, CNN or others confirm Pakistan losing any plane to Afghan forces today amid border clashes. It’s likely old/unrelated footage misattributed for propaganda.”
Moreover, defence experts have noted that the serial number does not correspond to known Pakistani F-16 inventories.
How deadly is the F-16 fighter jet?
The US-made F-16, also called the F-16 Fighting Falcon or the Viper, is one of Pakistan’s deadliest aircraft in its air arsenal.
The jets are currently manufactured by US defence and aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin, which took over production in 1995. It was originally developed by General Dynamics, a US industrial and technology company.
Developed towards the end of the Vietnam War, the F-16 is now one of the world’s most widely used fighters. According to Lockheed Martin, F-16s are operating in 29 countries, including Pakistan.
Pakistan has used the F-16 in the past against India. In 2019, the Indian Air Force shot down a F-16 after Islamabad conducted airstrikes in Jammu and Kashmir in retaliation to India’s Balakot strikes. Also, another F-16 was downed by India’s surface-to-air missile defence system last May amid Operation Sindoor.
With inputs from agencies