According to CNN, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards sent two Soviet Sukhoi Su-24 tactical bombers on Monday morning towards Al-Udayd, the largest US base in the Middle East, and Ras Lafan, a key Qatari facility for processing and liquefaction of natural gas.
The case began to be discussed only on Thursday, when CNN reported that the Qatari air defense had identified the planes in Iranian service with their “bombs and guided missiles”. Qatari soldiers also formally warned the Iranians that they had entered their airspace. However, they did not receive any response and the land vehicles dropped to a height of 80 feet (less than 25 meters) in an attempt to avoid radar detection, the station said, citing a source familiar with the course of the aerial battle.
Qatar’s air defenses assessed the aircraft as “enemy machines” and sent their fighters against them. The Qatari F-15 also joined the fight, which shot down the Iranian aircraft after several maneuvers.
Suchoys crashed into Qatari territorial waters. The spokesman of the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Majid Ansari, said that the search is on for the pilots of the Iranian planes.
The first Qatar air combat
The US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine confirmed the aerial battle at a press conference in the Pentagon on Wednesday, but did not specify the intended target of the Iranian machines.
According to CNN, this was the first case in which Iran sent a piloted aircraft to attack a neighboring country within the framework of the latest war with the US and Israel. It was also the first time that the Qatari air force participated in an aerial battle.
Since the beginning of the American-Israeli attack, Iran has fired more than 400 ballistic missiles and over 1,000 drones at the Arab states along the Persian Gulf. He focused his attacks mainly on energy infrastructure, airports and hotels.
On Sunday, six American soldiers lost their lives in an Iranian attack at the temporary operations center in the Kuwaiti port of Shuaiba. According to CNN, one Iranian missile escaped the air defense there.
Photo: Profimedia
Russian Sukhoi Su bombers – 24
