Iran says three military pilots whose Su-24 fighter jets went down during attacks in March were captured alive by Qatari forces and have been held in the country for about six months.

Axar.az reports, citing Iran International, that Mohammad Bagherzadeh, commander of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff’s committee for missing personnel, made the disclosure in a letter to the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross that was published by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - affiliated Fars news agency.

The letter identified the pilots as Javad Salehi, Abdolmajid Dashtian and Omran Behraveshian.
Bagherzadeh said Qatar had not allowed the three men to meet or speak with their families or Iranian officials seeking information about them during their detention.

Iranian officials had previously said the fate of the three pilots remained unclear and that available information about them was incomplete. They had said only that the body of another pilot, Majid Kazemi, was returned to Iran following the operation against Qatar.

It should be noted that two days after the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, two Iranian Air Force Su-24 bombers took off from Shiraz Air Base and carried out a strike on the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

The body of one of the pilots has reportedly since been returned to Iran.