The Safy Mountain range is of strategic importance because it overlooks the Bagram air base, which was built by Soviet forces during the Soviet Union's war with Afghanistan in the 1980s.

CNN: New attacks on Kandahar

India can arm two types of aircraft to do this: the MiG-27 Flogger, which was made by the old Soviet Union, and the Jaguar, which was used in a nuclear role by the British and French air forces.

ECONOMIST: South Asia’s nuclear winter | The