{"id":250586,"date":"2026-08-15T19:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T19:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/250586\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T19:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T19:13:10","slug":"iran-urges-qatar-to-release-pilots-shot-down-in-middle-east-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/250586\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran urges Qatar to release pilots shot down in Middle East war"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Iranian authorities revealed on Saturday that three of Tehran\u2019s pilots who went down early in the Middle East war were still being held in Qatar, calling on the Gulf state to release them.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Iran had previously reported one pilot killed and others missing after a sortie to Qatar in March, but news of their alleged capture was not publicised at the time.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThree Iranian pilots were captured alive by Qatari forces after their Su-24 fighter jets crashed during the war,\u201d said General Mohammad Bagherzadeh of the Iranian armed forces, Fars news agency reported.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cJavad Salehi, Abdolmajid Dashtian and Omran Behraveshian have been held by Qatari forces for six months,\u201d he said in a letter addressed to the International Committee of the Red Cross.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In the letter, Bagherzadeh called for their release, saying the pilots had not been allowed to meet or contact their families.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A satellite image shows aircraft at the Al Udeid Air Base, near Doha, Qatar, in February. Image: Planet Labs PBC via Reuters\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2d504dbf-5495-447d-be10-697fbbfbf165_90164dc5.jpg\" title=\"A satellite image shows aircraft at the Al Udeid Air Base, near Doha, Qatar, in February. Image: Planet Labs PBC via Reuters\"\/>A satellite image shows aircraft at the Al Udeid Air Base, near Doha, Qatar, in February. Image: Planet Labs PBC via Reuters<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Qatar denied that it was detaining any Iranian pilots on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iranian authorities revealed on Saturday that three of Tehran\u2019s pilots who went down early in the Middle East&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[69417,7921,141,2061,69420,4175,34,69416,69418,187,69419,650,271,101,153],"class_list":["post-250586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-abdolmajid-dashtian","tag-al-udeid-air-base","tag-centcom","tag-fars-news-agency","tag-general-mohammad-bagherzadeh","tag-international-committee-of-the-red-cross","tag-iran","tag-javad-salehi","tag-majid-kazemi","tag-middle-east-war","tag-omran-behraveshian","tag-pakistan","tag-qatar","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117101120909571718","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}