Iran calls for the release of Iranian pilots it says are captured in Qatar, following an incident during a wider conflict in West Asia. Multiple reports say Iranian forces state that three Su-24 pilots were taken by Qatari forces after their aircraft crashed.
Iranian officials link the case to fighting connected with attacks near Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base. Iran’s army also states that it retrieved the body of one pilot, Majid Kazemi, who is reported to have been killed during an attack on the base in early March. The outlets describe the same overall sequence—crashes involving Iranian Su-24 aircraft, pilots taken after the crash, and at least one fatality—while differing slightly in emphasis on whether the pilots were captured alive or whether retrieval of a body occurred alongside the demand for release.
Overall, the reporting reflects Iran’s demand that the captives be freed and its account of the incident, but it does not provide an account from Qatari authorities in the excerpts.
