WASHINGTON 

US President Donald Trump described the latest flare-up between India and Pakistan as "a shame" and expressed hope that tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors end “very quickly."

Speaking to reporters Tuesday at the White House when asked for his reaction to attacks between India and Pakistan, Trump said: "It's a shame. We just heard about it just as we were walking in the doors of the Oval."

"I guess people knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past. They've been fighting for a long time. You know, they've been fighting for many, many decades and centuries, actually, if you really think about it," he said.

"I just hope it ends very quickly," he added.

Minutes before the press conference at the White House, India’s military said it launched strikes under what it dubbed “Operation Sindoor,” targeting sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Jammu Kashmir.

It came as tensions are running high between two countries over an attack last month on the touristic resort of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir.