•  As Military says Pakistani troops killed by Indian shelling in Kashmir
• ISIL claims suicide attacks in Fallujah, near Karbala

A Russian MiG-29 fighter jet has crashed into the Mediterranean Sea as it tried to land on the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, the country’s defence ministry has said.

The pilot ejected safely from the plane, the ministry said.

The Admiral Kuznetsov is part of a group of Russian warships recently deployed near the Syrian coast.

Nato had expressed concern planes from the carrier would be used to attack civilians in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

The defence ministry said the crash was as a result of “technical malfunction” during a training flight.

The jet came down a few kilometres from the carrier and the pilot was picked up by a rescue team.

“The pilot’s health is not in danger,” the ministry said, adding that he was ready to fly again.

It said that flight operations had not been suspended.

US officials quoted by Fox News said that the aircraft which crashed was a MiG-29K.

The aircraft appeared to have mechanical difficulties shortly after take-off, the Washington Post reported, pointing out that MiG-29Ks were added to the Kuznetsov’s carrier wing during the summer.

The aircraft are specifically designed to handle the difficulties of operating from an aircraft carrier at sea, the paper reported, and are believed to be updated versions of MiG-29s, which have been in service since the 1980s.

The Admiral Kuznetsov – Russia’s sole aircraft carrier – can carry dozens of fighter bombers and helicopters.

Its flotilla sailed from Russia to the Mediterranean via the English Channel last month.

The ships refuelled at sea off North Africa after plans to dock at the Spanish port of Ceuta were cancelled amid Nato concerns over their mission.

The naval group also includes a nuclear-powered battle cruiser, two anti-submarine warships and four support vessels, probably escorted by submarines.

The group joined about 10 other Russian vessels already off the Syrian coast.

Russia has been supporting Syrian government forces in the country’s civil conflict, most recently targeting rebels in eastern Aleppo.

Western leaders have said Russian and Syrian air strikes on Aleppo could amount to war crimes, an accusation rejected by Russia.

The air strikes have been suspended recently but there are fears that, with the naval flotilla now in place, they will be stepped up again.

In the meantime, Pakistan says seven of its soldiers have been killed by Indian firing on the frontline of the contested Himalayan region of Kashmir.

The incident happened in the Bhimber sector of the line of control, a brief statement by Pakistan’s army said. “Pakistani troops, while responding to Indian unprovoked firing, targeted Indian posts effectively,” it added.

Pakistan’s foreign affairs ministry condemned what it described as “continuous unprovoked” firing and said the army was responding in a “befitting manner”.

The LOC is the ceasefire line between the two countries, which have fought three conflicts over Kashmir, a Muslim majority state that joined India after the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. The two nuclear armed neighbours are embroiled in an increasingly acrimonious diplomatic standoff.

Pakistan has lodged several complaints with India over what it says is the targeting of civilians living on its side of the LOC. It has said at least 25 people have been killed in recent weeks.

Tensions have been stoked following two attacks this year on Indian military bases, which Delhi blames on Pakistan-based militant groups that it claims receives clandestine state support.

The first attack, on the Pathankot airbase in Indian Punjab, took place in January shortly after hopes for peace in south Asia had been stoked by the surprise visit of the Indian prime minister to Lahore on Christmas Day.

Nineteen soldiers died during the second assault on a base near the town of Uri in Indian Kashmir in September.

India responded with an unprecedented series of raids across the LOC, which it described as “surgical strikes” against “terrorist launch pads”, although Pakistan vigorously denied the claim.

Relations have been further tested by the widespread civilian unrest in India’s half of Kashmir following the killing by security forces of a popular militant commander in July.

Pakistan has criticised India’s attempts to impose order on Kashmir, which has resulted in scores of casualties among protesters.

This month Islamabad named eight Indian diplomats who it accused of spying.

Earlier, Delhi announced the expulsion of a Pakistani diplomat it said was running a spy ring.

In another development, ISIL fighters in Iraq launched a series of suicide bomb attacks in the city of Fallujah and an oasis town south of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens.

The attacks came as Iraqi forces and their allies continue fighting ISIL in the northern city of Mosul, the armed group’s last major population centre in the country.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has carried out several attacks in other areas of Iraq since the operation to retake Mosul was launched a month ago, in an apparent bid to draw attention and possibly troops away from the battle for the city.

In Fallujah, at least eight people were killed and nearly 20 wounded in two separate car bomb blasts that hit police checkpoints, police sources told Reuters news agency.

The attacks were the first since Iraqi forces took back the city from ISIL, also known as ISIS, in June.

“These two explosions are the first … in Fallujah since its liberation,” said Raja Barakat, a member of the provincial council security committee in Anbar province, where Fallujah is located.

Earlier on Monday, a group of ISIL attackers armed with suicide vests and light weapons killed at least eight people in Ain al-Tamer, 50km from a Shia shrine in the city of Karbala, before blowing themselves, according to local officials.

The attack involved six suicide bombers who were detected by security forces before a major gathering in the area that is expected to draw tens of thousands of pilgrims.

Masum al-Tamimi, a member of the Karbala provincial council, said the attackers tried to infiltrate the town in the early hours before withdrawing to the al-Jihad area after clashing with security forces, where they detonated their explosives. He put the death toll at eight.

BBC with additional report from Guardian and MSN