India fired missiles into Pakistani-controlled territory in several locations early Wednesday, in strikes that the Pakistani military said killed at least 26 civilians.

India said it struck infrastructure used by militants linked to last month’s massacre of tourists in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.

Tensions have soared between the nuclear-armed neighbors since the attack, which was claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself Kashmir Resistance. India has blamed Pakistan for backing the attack. Islamabad has denied the accusation.

Pakistan claimed it shot down five Indian fighter jets in retaliation for the missile strikes as two planes fell onto villages in India-controlled Kashmir. At least seven civilians were also killed in the region by Pakistani shelling, the Indian army said in a statement.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the strikes and said the “deceitful enemy has carried out cowardly attacks” and that his country would retaliate.

“The retaliation has already started,” Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told AFP. “We won’t take long to settle the score.”

Stephane Dujarric, the United Nations spokesperson, said in a statement late Tuesday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for maximum military restraint from both countries.

The US and China both called on India and Pakistan to engage in diplomacy and exercise restraint.

Indian politicians from different political parties, meanwhile, lauded the strikes, with the main opposition Congress party calling for national unity and saying it was “extremely proud” of the country’s army.

India’s army said the operation was named “Sindoor,” a Hindi word for the bright red vermillion powder worn by married Hindu women on their forehead and hair, in a reference to the women who saw their husbands killed in front of them.

Indian officials said the armed forces had used precision strike weapon systems to carry out the strikes, targeting the headquarters of militant groups Jaish-e-Mohammed in Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Muridke.

India’s Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted at least nine sites “where terrorist attacks against India have been planned.”

“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistan military facilities have been targeted,” the statement said, adding that “India has demonstrated considerable restraint.”

The missiles hit six locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the country’s eastern Punjab province, said Pakistan’s military spokesperson, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif.

“Until now 26 innocent civilians have been martyred in attacks,” said another Pakistani military spokesman, Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry.

One missile hit the Subhan Mosque in the city of Bahawalpur in Punjab, killing 13 people including a child, according to Zohaib Ahmed, a doctor at a nearby hospital.

The mosque is adjacent to a seminary that once served as the central office of Jaish-e-Mohammed, a militant group outlawed in 2002. Officials say the group has had no operational presence at the site since the ban.

Another missile hit a mosque in Muridke, damaging its structure. A sprawling building located nearby served as the headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba until 2013, when Pakistan banned the group and arrested its founder.

Authorities in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir have declared an emergency in the region’s hospitals.

Pakistan shut schools in Kashmir and Punjab province after the missile strikes. It had earlier closed seminaries in Kashmir in anticipation of an attack by India.

Along the Line of Control, which divides the disputed region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan, there were heavy exchanges of fire.

The Indian police and medics said seven civilians were killed and 30 wounded by Pakistani shelling in Poonch district, which lies close to the highly militarized Line of Control, the de facto border that divides disputed Kashmir between the two countries.

Officials said several homes also were damaged in the shelling.

The Indian army said Pakistani troops “resorted to arbitrary firing,” including gunfire and artillery shelling, across the frontier. It said it was “responding in a proportionate manner.”

Shortly after India’s strikes, aircraft fell in two villages in India-controlled Kashmir.

Pakistan’s military said it had shot down five Indian jets, including three French Rafale fighter aircraft, inside India, as well as a combat drone, adding: “They attacked Pakistan.”

There was no immediate comment from India about Pakistan’s claim.

Debris from a plane was scattered across Wuyan village in the Pampore area in the outskirts of the region’s main city, including in a school and a mosque compound, according to Srinagar police and residents. Firefighters struggled for hours to douse the resulting fires.

Another aircraft fell in an open field in the village of Bhardha Kalan near southern Akhnoor town, close to the Line of Control in Indian-controlled Kashmir shortly after the strikes.

A witness reported two injured pilots being taken away by the Indian army.

Ten flights between Taiwan and Europe were disrupted or canceled due to the fighting, according to airport authorities in Taiwan. Pakistan said India’s strikes posed a significant threat to commercial air traffic.

Meanwhile, authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir shut Srinagar city’s airport for civilian flights following directions from the Indian air force, senior airport official said Javed Anjum said.

Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir also closed all schools and other educational institutions in at least seven border areas and the area around Srinagar airport, officials said.