French Navy Rejects Pakistan Media Claims on Op Sindoor, Calls It ‘Extensive Misinformation’

The French Navy has also severely criticized a Pakistani-based media house over its dissemination of misinformation and disinformation on the Indian action against Islamist-backed terrorists in its Operation Sindoor.

In an article published on its web site on November 21, Geo TV of Pakistan asserted that a French naval commander had admitted that Pakistan was air superior and Indian jets were downed in the border conflicts in May, after the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed.

In an article in X, the French Navy declared that the article is full of misinformation and disinformation and had the report not only quoted French officers falsely, but it had even used the wrong name, mentioning the officer as Jacques Launay, rather than Captain Yvan Launay.

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[#FAKENEWS] These statements were attributed to Captain Launay who never gave his consent for any form of publication.
The article contains extensive misinformation and disinformation. pic.twitter.com/crVrFFABkx

— Marine nationale (@MarineNationale) November 22, 2025

"These statements were attributed to Captain Launay, who never gave his consent for any form of publication. The article contains extensive misinformation and disinformation," it said.

The Navy emphasized that the role of Captain Launay is restricted to overall command of the naval air station at Landivisiau, where the Rafale Marine aircraft are based and not as a high-level operational authority in the India-Pakistan conflict as the Pakistani version had portrayed him.

“When asked the question about operation SINDOOR, he neither confirmed nor denied that Indian aircrafts had been shot down. He refused to comment on possible jamming of the Indian Rafale by Chinese systems,” the Navy clarified.

The Navy also made it clear that he never mentioned the Chinese J-10 and this neutralized the Pakistani media claims.

According to BJP leader Amit Malviya, the incident was evidence of a desperate misinformation machine in Pakistan.

“The French Navy has called out Pakistan’s Geo TV and its correspondent Hamid Mir for spreading “misinformation and disinformation.” In his report, Hamid Mir peddled the same old, fabricated claims about Rafales and the so-called May conflict and has now been publicly exposed. When official institutions start debunking their propaganda, you know how desperate Pakistan’s misinformation machinery has become,” he wrote on X.

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Operation Sindoor

In May, India directed its Operation Sindoor that signified the direct reaction of New Delhi in military action against the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam where 26 individuals were murdered.

In the early mornings of May 7, India initiated the operation and attacked terror and military installations in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK) until the ceasefire that occurred on May 10. The battle was fought with fighter jets, missiles, armed drones and a heavy artillery war.

The Indian forces between the initiation of the operation and the ceasefire on May 10 evening dropped bombs in at least nine terror camps in Pakistan and PoK killing at least 100 terrorists, and the IAF attacked 13 Pakistani airbases and military installations.

In October, the Air Chief Marshal AP Singh estimated that Pakistan had lost up to 12-13 airplanes in the precision strikes by the IAF on the ground and in the air during Operation Sindoor, which include fighter jets including F-16s made by US and the Chinese-made JF-17s.

During his yearly press conference on October 3, he indicated that India had shown signs that it had destroyed 6-7 aircraft during its ground attacks against the Pakistan airfields and another six jets in the air. He also did not accept the fact of Indian jets being shot down by Islamabad since he found this as imaginary stories to pass a message to its own people.

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