Doha: Qatar has rejected Iran’s allegation that its forces detained three Iranian pilots who reportedly abandoned their fighter jets after they were struck during a mission against a military installation in Qatar.
A spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that the Iranian aircraft had entered Qatari airspace in March. According to the official, the pilots did not respond despite several efforts by Qatari authorities to establish contact.
Qatari search-and-rescue personnel subsequently found the remains of one of the pilots, the spokesperson said. Qatar informed Iran and sought to coordinate the transfer of the remains, but Tehran had not responded to an invitation to inspect the circumstances and details of the operation, as reported by India Today.
Qatar issued the denial after Iran’s official IRNA news agency cited a senior military official as saying that three pilots had been captured alive by Qatari forces. The pilots were allegedly taken into custody after ejecting from their aircraft during a mission targeting what Iran described as an enemy military base in Qatar.
Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff also claimed that the pilots were being held by Qatar. In a letter carried on Saturday by the semi-official Fars news agency, it said it had approached the International Committee of the Red Cross for assistance in securing their release.
The operation reportedly occurred in March, after the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28. Tehran has alleged that Washington and Tel Aviv used military facilities in Gulf Arab countries to support the strikes.
Iran responded by carrying out attacks against targets in Israel as well as US military installations across the Gulf, intensifying a wider regional confrontation.
Qatar said its forces took defensive action after the Iranian pilots crossed into its airspace and failed to answer repeated attempts to communicate with them. It maintained that its account contradicted Iran’s assertion that all three pilots had survived and were being held in custody.
