IAF

"In a standard military doctrine, you would suppress the enemy's air defences and get air superiority before you struck ground targets. Instead, it appears the IAF's mission was clearly not to provoke any Pakistani military retaliation," he said.

The IAF hasn't given details of the mission or about its air operations strategy.

Mr Ladwig says this time the IAF operated with standard procedures - first attacking Pakistani air defence and radar systems and then focusing on ground targets.

The IAF's secretary general, Wael Saqqa, insisted that it was an independent political party, explaining that it had "no relationship with any other organisational body".

However, the group continued its political and other activities, and the IAF participated in last year's parliamentary elections, winning 31 out of the 138 seats.