New Delhi: Hours after India said that 20 of its Army personnel were killed in violent clashes with Chinese troops at Galway Valley at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), American intelligence believes 35 Chinese troops died, including one senior officer, a source familiar with that assessment tells U.S. News.

In a first outside confirmation of Chinese casualties US news has said that “American intelligence believes 35 Chinese troops died, including one senior officer.”

According to the US intelligence assessment, all of the casualties were from the use of batons and knives and from falls from the steep topography.

Casualties among their troops

Meanwhile the US assessment said, the Chinese government considers the casualties among their troops as a humiliation for its armed forces and has not confirmed the numbers for fear of emboldening other adversaries.

Tensions have mounted in recent weeks around the area spanning in the northern India region of Ladakh and the southwestern Chinese region of Aksai Chin.

The border dispute comes at a time of shifting influence in the region. Beijing has become increasingly bold in its territorial ambitions in recent months, including in the East and South China seas, with U.S. officials saying it has successfully exploited global unrest from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. At the same time India has enjoyed new and outsized support from the U.S. under the Trump administration, which sees India as a principal battleground for its own economic rivalry with China.

Tensions caused by “arrogance and recklessness

In an editorial in the semi-official Global Times, China said the tensions were caused by “arrogance and recklessness of the Indian side” and that officials there believed “their country’s military is more powerful than China’s.” However the main focus of Beijing’s ire was clear.

“The U.S. has wooed India with its Indo-Pacific Strategy, which adds to the abovementioned misjudgment of some Indian elite,” according to the outlet, which is not a direct mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party but is considered aligned with its views. “New Delhi must be clear that the resources that the U.S. would invest in China-India relations are limited. What the U.S. would do is just extend a lever to India, which Washington can exploit to worsen India’s ties with China, and make India dedicate itself to serving Washington’s interests.”

US “closely monitoring” the situation

The United States on Tuesday said it is “closely monitoring” the situation between India and China after a violent face-off between troops of the two countries at the Line of Actual Control and has extended support to a peaceful resolution of the current situation.

“We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control. Both India and China have expressed a desire to de-escalate, and we support a peaceful resolution of the current situation,” a State Department spokesperson said.