The critical eight-hour window also saw Indian missile barrages on three major Pakistan air bases and other facilities, including Nur Khan, which is ringed by civilian homes like Subhan's, and just a 20-minute drive to the capital, Islamabad.
This account of Saturday's events - which began with the looming specter of a full-blown war and ended with an evening cease-fire announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump - is based on interviews with 14 people, including U.S., Indian and Pakistani officials, as well as Reuters' review of public statements from the three capitals.
The attack on Nur Khan air base saw at least two missile strikes as well as drone attacks, according to Subhan and two Pakistani security officials, who like some of the people interviewed by Reuters, spoke on condition of anonymity.
A senior Indian military officer, however, told reporters on Sunday that an operation command center at Nur Khan had been hit.
So, an attack on the facility may have been perceived as more dangerous than India intended - and the two sides shouldn't conclude that it is possible to have a conflict without it going nuclear, said Christopher Clary, an associate professor at the University at Albany in New York.
India's defense and foreign ministries, as well as Pakistan's military and its foreign ministry, did not immediately answer written questions submitted by Reuters.
VANCE CALLS MODI
It was the latest of many disputes involving Kashmir, a Himalayan territory ravaged by an anti-India insurgency since the late 1980s. Both New Delhi and Islamabad claim the region in full but only control parts of it.
After a go-ahead from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian military on May 7 carried out air strikes on what it called “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan, in response to the April attack in Kashmir. In air battles that followed, Pakistan said it shot down five Indian aircraft, including prized Rafale planes New Delhi recently acquired from France. India has indicated that it suffered losses and inflicted some of its own. Senior U.S. officials became seriously concerned by Friday, May 9 that the conflict was at risk of spiralling out of control, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Vance’s intervention came despite him saying publicly on Thursday that the U.S. was “not going to get involved in the middle of war that’s fundamentally none of our business.”
Pakistan said their strikes occurred only after the pre-dawn Indian attack on its air bases, including Nur Khan.
A little over an hour after that Indian attack began, Pakistan military spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry confirmed Indian strikes on three air bases.
By 5 a.m. local time on Saturday, Pakistan's military announced it had launched operations against Indian air bases and other facilities. About two hours later, Pakistani officials told journalists that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had called a meeting of the National Command Authority, which oversees the nuclear arsenal.
But signalling an intention to convene NCA reflected how much the crisis had escalated and “may also have been an indirect call for external mediation,“ said Michael Kugelman, a Washington-based South Asia expert.
Rubio also soon got on the phone with Dar and Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar.
An Indian official with knowledge of Rubio's call with Jaishankar said that Rubio passed on a message that the Pakistanis were willing to stop firing if India would also cease.
Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, who only days earlier warned of conflict, dialled into a local TV news channel at around 10:30 am on Saturday.
The international intervention anchored by Rubio paved the way to a cessation of hostilities formalized in a mid-afternoon phone call between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMO) of India and Pakistan. The two spoke again on Monday. Pakistan Lt. Gen. Chaudhry said in a briefing that New Delhi had initially requested a call between the DGMOs after the Indian military's May 7 strikes across the border.
“Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence,“ he said.
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