{"id":47937,"date":"2026-08-16T03:48:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T22:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=47937"},"modified":"2026-08-16T03:48:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T22:48:39","slug":"qatar-denies-capturing-three-iranian-pilots-after-downing-fighter-jets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=47937","title":{"rendered":"Qatar denies capturing three Iranian pilots after downing fighter jets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\" data-body-type=\"bodyblocks\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Iran has called for the release of three Iranian pilots it said were captured by Qatar after two fighter jets were<strong> <\/strong>hit by air defences during a military operation at the start of the US-Iran war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In a letter to the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Iran&#8217;s Brig Gen Mohammad Bagherzadeh said the pilots &#8211; Javad Salehi, Abdul Majid Dashtian, and Imran Behroshian &#8211; had been held captive for six months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He said the body of a fourth pilot, Majid Kazemi, was returned after he was killed in the same operation on 2 March 2026 &#8211; the third day of the war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Qatar &#8220;categorically denied&#8221; Iran&#8217;s claims and said it was &#8220;surprised by these misleading statements&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Gen Bagherzadeh said the three pilots had been captured by Qatar after they ejected from their jets during the combat mission on a Qatari military base.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In the letter to ICRC chief Mirjana Spoljaric,<strong> <\/strong>published by Iranian media, he accused Qatar of violating &#8220;the inalienable rights of these prisoners, contrary to all international laws and regulations&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The letter also claimed the three pilots had not been allowed to meet or contact their families.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Qatar&#8217;s foreign affairs spokesperson Majed Mohammed Al Ansari said contact had been made with the pilots &#8220;after they violated Qatari airspace&#8221;, but it did not receive a response.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;The necessary measures were taken to defend our territory in accordance with international law,&#8221; he added in a statement on X.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Al Ansari said Qatar&#8217;s search and rescue teams &#8220;carried out their duties to the fullest extent in searching for the pilots&#8217; remains&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He said Qatar contacted Iran to &#8220;co-ordinate the handover of the remains of one of the pilots that were recovered&#8221;, and that Tehran had yet to respond to an invitation to review details of the search and rescue operation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iran has called for the release of three Iranian pilots it said were captured by Qatar after two fighter jets were hit by air defences during a military operation at the start of the US-Iran war. In a letter to the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Iran&#8217;s Brig Gen Mohammad&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/lo\/mysterio\/api\/372382c5ed710fdf2f8d560a49e1fc1fe6faa911a47245aab3ae58940aacd184\/lightyear_networkapi\/resizefill_w1000_h563%3Bquality_80%3Bformat_jpg\/https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.zenfs.com%2Fen%2Fbbc_us_articles_995%2F5ee2400667561b140b46b5f626cf15e6.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-trending-viral-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}