India prepared for air raids: US

WASHINGTON - India's Air Force geared up for possible missions against suspected terrorist camps in Pakistan in the immediate aftermath of the last month's Mumbai attacks, CNN reported Monday, citing US military officials.
One unnamed US official said the Indian Air Force "went on alert" following the attacks in Mumbai.
Indian warplanes Saturday violated Pakistan's airspace by entering two places - Kashmir and Lahore. Pakistan Air Force's interceptors scrambled into action and chased away the intruders.
CNN said, "While the officials characterised the actions as preliminary preparations to position the air force if strikes were ordered, the comments indicate that the two nuclear powers were perhaps closer to conflict in the days just after the Mumbai attacks than previously acknowledged".
Three Pentagon officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, have individually confirmed to CNN that the United States has information indicating that India began to prepare air force personnel for a possible mission.
The officials, according to the report, offered very few details, but one said the Indian Air Force "went on alert."
A second official said the United States concluded these preliminary preparations would have put India in a position to move swiftly against suspected terrorist camps and targets inside Pakistan, before adding that a number of senior US officials urged India to exercise restraint during this time.
But an Indian Air Force official had no comment for CNN. CNN sister network CNN-IBN reported last week that the air force had been put on its highest level of readiness and that the aircraft had been armed.
"We are certainly against terrorism but that doesn't mean that we go at war with any country," Indian Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major told CNN-IBN Thursday, adding that any decision on military action would be "up to the government because the air force and the Army are there only to carry out the will of the government."
Our Monitoring Desk adds: This is the first publicly known indication that perhaps the two nuclear powers were closer to conflict in the days after the Mumbai attacks than previously acknowledged.
During these preparations, a number of senior US officials were urging India to exercise restraint - which apparently it did.
Air Commodore Homayoon Ziqar, a spokesman for the Pakistan Air Force, had no comment when asked if India had prepared for airstrikes against Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks.
Ziqar said Pakistan is not on heightened alert at the moment. "Everything is normal," he said.
Another source in the Pakistan Air Force also said the air force is not on heightened alert but added, "We are always ready, on weekends, on holidays, no matter what the circumstances."
The Pentagon officials broadly described the activity as checking on the status of crews, fighter jets and weapons that were available. The extent of the reported preparation was not immediately known.
Also, one of the Pentagon officials confirmed that the US has intelligence indicating a single Indian aircraft violated Pakistani airspace twice on Saturday. The US believes the incursion was inadvertent, the official said, adding that there is no information to indicate it was planned.
Until now, the Bush Administration has publicly said it saw no signs of military movement by India and no indication that the Indian government was preparing any type of retaliation.
The United States on Monday urged cooperative efforts by Pakistan and India in investigating last month's Mumbai attacks, saying Washington stood for defusing the current tensiions between the two South Asian Countries.
"We don't give warnings, we have been in touch with, we talk to both countries about the importance of cooperating in terms of this investigation of Mumbai attacks. We obviously don't want to see tensions in the region escalate," State Department spokesman Robert Wood
told the regular briefing.
The spokesman was responding to a question on reported Indian moves to strike against suspected militant in Pakistan in the wake of the the Mumbai attacks.
"We think, actually, that promoting this type of cooperation between the two governments will help ease tensions in the region," he added.
Pressed to comment specifically what Washington thought about any Indian aggressive action against Pakistan in terms of it destabilizing the region, Wood said:
"I'm not going to speculate on something that, you know, that has not happened. But let's just say that we don't want to see any type of actions that destabilize the region."
Agencies add: the American TV claimed the United States stopped India from attacking Pakistan.
However, a spokesperson of the Pakistan Air Force, while talking to a private TV channel, told that the PAF was ready to face any situation after Mumbai attacks and was monitoring the movement of Indian forces.
Spokesperson of Indian Air Force Wing Commander Mahesh Upasani did not comment on the report of the American TV channel.