US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called on India and Pakistan to "exercise restraint" after reports out of India that its warplanes have killed "a very large number" of fighters by striking a militant training camp inside Pakistan.
"We encourage India and Pakistan to exercise restraint, and avoid escalation at any cost," Pompeo said in a statement after speaking with his counterparts from both countries.
Pompeo said that in talks with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, he stressed "the priority of de-escalating current tensions by avoiding military action, and the urgency of Pakistan taking meaningful action against terrorist groups operating on its soil."
Pakistan has denied India's claim that the attack inflicted major damage and casualties on militants, calling it "reckless and fictitious" and vowing a response in due course.
Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj said India wants to avoid any "further escalation of the situation".
She stressed during a visit to China that "no military installations were targeted" in the air raid, describing the operation as a "preemptive strike" to prevent another attack in India by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) group.
"India does not wish to see further escalation of this situation. India will continue to act with responsibility and restraint," she said.
A senior Indian government source said 300 militants had been killed in the strikes and that the warplanes had ventured as far as 80km into Pakistan. But no evidence was provided to back up the claims of casualties.
Pakistani officials dismissed the Indian claims, saying the Indian aircraft had dropped their bombs in a wooded area, causing no damage or casualties.
The air strike happened near Balakot, a town 50km from the border, and it was the deepest cross-border raid by India since the last of its three wars with Pakistan in 1971.
The Indian government, facing an election in the coming months, said the air strikes hit a training camp belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the group that claimed a suicide car bomb attack that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir earlier in February.
Indian and Pakistan troops also exchanged gunfire along several sectors of their contested border in Kashmir late on Tuesday, and local officials on the Pakistani side said at least four people had been killed and seven wounded.
