RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, Dec. 8 — A West Pakistani military spokesman reported today that his country's troops in East Pakistan had been fighting without air cover for three days because Indian bombs had damaged the airfield at Dacca.

The spokesman continued today to give scant information on the course of the fighting in the East but he said Pakistani troops were in control.

“Our troops are defending every inch of the territory and are in control of the situation,” said the chief spokesman here in West Pakistan.

[The Pakistan radio said that Indian aircraft attacked Karachi and its harbor early Thursday, sinking a merchant ship and killing a number of civilians, Reuters reported.]

The air force spokesman disclosed that for three days Pakistani troops had been fighting without air support because Indian raids on the airfield in Dacca had left craters in the runway.

All tactical planes are in Dacca, the spokesman said, and could not again take to the air until the strip had been repaired. The airfield was raided again this morning.

The naval spokesman reported that Indian aircraft had attacked two American merchant ships in the port of Chittagong, East Pakistan, yesterday, causing undisclosed casualties to American seamen. He said that he would, give details tomorrow.

The Pakistani Navy reported tonight having attacked and apparently seriously damaged an Indian submarine 27 miles from Karachi, at the southern end of West Pakistan. The spokesman said the destroyers would persist in their attack until the submarine was sunk.

Spokesmen announced heavy fighting at several places along and across the line dividing the Indian and Pakistani parts of Kashmir.

An air force spokesman said that planes had destroyed more than 40 Indian, tanks along this border in the last two days. He put total Indian plane losses since the outbreak of the war at 102, against seven Pakistani planes shot down.

Loss of Cities Denied

An army briefing Officer denied Indian claims to have captured Jessore and Sylhet in East Pakistan. “A fantastic bloody lie,” he said.

He said that two companies of Indian troops that made a helicopter‐borne assault near Sylhet last night had been wiped out. It was the first use of helicopters to carry troops into battle that had been reported in the war.

The spokesman suggested that the Indian command may have been emboldened to use helicopters by the present inability of the Pakistanis to get strike planes into the air in the East.

For the fourth successive night, the spokesman said, the Pakistani Air Force struck at Indian bases including Jodhpur, Utterlai, Pathankot, Amritsar and Byuj.

All Pakistani craft returned safely the spokesman said.

The Pakistani Air Force claimed to have shot down this afternoon two Soviet‐built SU‐7 fighters of the Indian Air‐Force that attempted to strike at Jisawewala air base. A third SU‐7 was reported hit by ground fire in the same sector.