Iran has asked the Red Cross to investigate the fate of three pilots it says Qatar captured after their aircraft were shot down in March, a claim Doha firmly denies.

Iran has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to intervene over three military pilots whom Tehran says have been held by Qatar for nearly six months after their aircraft were shot down during a March operation targeting the US military presence in Qatar.

The claim marks a new dispute between Tehran and Doha, which have offered sharply different accounts of what happened to the pilots. Qatar has rejected the allegation that it detained any surviving Iranian airmen and says its search teams recovered the remains of only one pilot.

Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff has asked the ICRC to establish whether the three men are alive, determine their condition and seek access to them.

Iran Claims Pilots Captured

Brigadier General Mohammad Bagherzadeh, who heads Iran’s missing-persons search committee, said three pilots survived after two Iranian Su-24 aircraft went down on March 2.

According to Iran’s account, the aircraft had carried out a mission against a US military facility in Qatar before being intercepted by Qatari air defences while returning.

Four pilots were involved, Tehran says. Brigadier General Majid Kazemi was killed, while the other three — Javad Salehi, Abdolmajid Dashtian and Omran Behraveshian — were initially listed as missing. Iran now says they were captured alive.

Tehran Seeks ICRC Access

In a letter to ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric, Bagherzadeh urged the organisation to establish the pilots’ whereabouts and check their welfare.

Iran says its officials and the pilots’ families have been unable to establish direct contact with the men.

Tehran has also accused Qatar of failing to provide access to the pilots and has invoked obligations under international humanitarian law. The ICRC has not publicly confirmed that it has independently verified Iran’s account.

Qatar Rejects Detention Claim

Doha has strongly rejected the allegation.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Mohammed Al Ansari said the country was “surprised” by the Iranian claims and described them as misleading. Qatar says its forces attempted to contact the Iranian aircraft after they entered Qatari airspace but received no response.

According to Doha, Qatari forces then acted under established rules of engagement to defend the country’s airspace.

Qatar says search-and-rescue teams subsequently searched for the downed pilots and recovered the remains of one person.

Doha Cites Search Operation

Qatar says it contacted Tehran after the incident and invited an Iranian team to examine details of the search operation.

According to the Qatari account, an Iranian delegation was invited in April to review information related to the search. Doha says Iran did not respond to that invitation.

Qatar has also said it attempted to coordinate with Tehran over the return of the recovered remains.

The two versions leave a fundamental question unresolved: whether the three missing pilots survived the crash and, if so, what happened to them afterwards.

Al Udeid At Centre

The incident is linked to Al Udeid Air Base, a major US military facility in Qatar that hosts elements of US Central Command and has long served as a key hub for American operations in the Middle East.

The March confrontation occurred amid the wider Iran-US conflict and placed Qatar in a difficult position. Doha hosts a major US military presence while maintaining diplomatic and economic ties with Tehran.

The downing of the two Iranian aircraft added another layer to those complicated relationships.

Regional Tensions Remain High

The dispute comes as Gulf countries continue efforts to prevent the wider regional conflict from spreading.

Qatar has repeatedly faced pressure from competing security interests because of its relationship with Washington and its links with Iran. Any confirmation that Iranian military personnel were being held would carry significant diplomatic consequences.

For Tehran, securing information about the three pilots has become a humanitarian and military issue. For Doha, rejecting the allegation protects its account of the March incident and its claim that the pilots were not detained.

ICRC Could Clarify Fate

The ICRC could provide an independent channel if it gains access to information or individuals connected to the case, although the organisation would need cooperation from the parties involved.

For now, Iran says the three pilots are alive and in Qatar’s custody, while Doha says it never detained them and maintains that its search operation recovered only one pilot’s remains.

The conflicting claims mean the fate of the three airmen remains unresolved, with any independent verification likely to carry wider implications for Iran-Qatar relations and the fragile security situation in the Gulf.