Iran claims Qatar holding pilots as UAE says ship attacked in Strait of Hormuz

Iran has claimed Qatar is holding three of its pilots who have been missing since March.

According to the Missing Persons Committee of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff, Qatar’s armed forces had captured and were holding three pilots who went missing in March when their jets were downed.

Until now, Tehran had said it had no information about their fate.

Saturday’s statement alleged that Qatar had violated the men’s rights by not allowing the prisoners to meet or communicate with their families or with Iranian officials handling their cases, despite diplomatic efforts and repeated follow-ups.

There was no immediate response from Qatar.

Meanwhile, the tanker owned by Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil and gas company Adnoc was attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the Emirati state-run Wam news agency said on Saturday.

There were no injuries in the Friday evening attack, the agency reported.

It was the third such attack on a vessel operated by Adnoc in the critical waterway in the last week.

The United Arab Emirates in a statement called on Iran to stop the unprovoked strikes.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre said a bulk carrier was struck in the hull by an unknown projectile on Friday.

It was not immediately clear if it was the same vessel.

Iran asserted control over the strait after the war started on February 28 with US and Israeli strikes.

About one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed through the waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf before then.

Talks between the US and Iran have stalled while Iran is in discussions with Oman about how to manage the strait that runs between them and had been considered an international waterway.

In Lebanon, Israeli airstrikes in the south of the country killed at least 11 people on Saturday.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said one strike targeted a home on the edge of the village of Ansar and killed seven people, including three children, and wounded two.

The second, on the village of Deir al-Zahrani, killed two and wounded nine.

Israel’s military said it killed a Hezbollah battalion commander and several other militants at a headquarters in southern Lebanon in response to the group’s actions against Israeli soldiers operating there.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in a separate statement said three soldiers were seriously injured.

The military said the commander’s family was with him, and that “it should be emphasised that the family members were not the target of the strike”.

Both the military and Mr Netanyahu’s office alleged the commander used the family members as human shields.

It was one of the deadliest days since the Lebanese government and Israel announced a “framework agreement” laying out a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament.

The militant group refused direct talks and was not part of the agreement.

Also on Saturday, Yemen’s military said the Houthis attacked the Red Sea port of Mokha under the control of the internationally recognised government.

Port director Abdul-Malik al-Sharabi told journalists that Friday evening’s attack killed three people including two marines.

Military spokesperson Colonel Majed al-Nazili said in a statement that the Houthis fired six ballistic missiles.

The Houthis’ attack was the latest on government-held areas and on neighbouring Saudi Arabia, part of an escalation threatening to plunge Yemen back into civil war.

Analysts say the escalation reflects how Iran is scaling up pressure on the US and its regional allies.