Qatar said on Monday that its Air Force shot down two Iranian bomber jets, indicating a new escalation as Iran lashes out at its Persian Gulf neighbors in retaliation for the ongoing U.S. and Israeli attacks.
The Soviet-made Su-24 bombers were “coming from the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Qatar’s defense ministry said in a statement. The ministry did not say where the jets were when they were intercepted, whether they were in Qatari airspace, or what happened to their crews.
Since the Israeli-U.S. assault began on Saturday, Iran has launched hundreds of missiles and drones at several Gulf countries with U.S. bases, including Qatar, as well as Israel. However there had been no previous report of Iran sending warplanes toward them.
If Iran did dispatch bombers at Qatar, with which it has long had cordial relations — Qatar has often acted as an intermediary between Iran and the West — it raises questions about how far the Islamic Republic would go in its attacks on its neighbors.
Iran’s air force consists mostly of somewhat outdated aircraft, many of them acquired before the revolution that overthrew the last Shah in 1979. The supersonic Su-24 was built from the 1970s through the early 1990s.
Keeping its aircraft in working order has been a challenge for Iran, because of their age and because embargoes make replacement parts hard to get. They would be no match for the up-to-date U.S. and Israeli warplanes now attacking Iran.
Iran’s missile and drone attacks on Gulf countries have killed at least six people and wounded more than 100, many of them migrant workers. While Iranian officials have claimed those attacks were only targeting U.S. bases, they have hit civilian infrastructure and energy installations.
Qatar’s defense ministry said its air force had intercepted seven ballistic missiles and five drones on Monday.
But an Iranian drone struck an energy facility belonging to QatarEnergy, it said. QatarEnergy, a state-owned energy company and one of the world’s largest exporters of liquefied natural gas, announced it halted its L.N.G. production .
During the June 2025 Iran-Israel war, Iranian forces fired missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, where thousands of American soldiers are usually stationed, in retaliation for the American bombing of Iranian nuclear sites. At the time, Qatar did not respond with force and went on to help end that war by mediating between the United States and Iran.
On Monday afternoon, Majed al-Ansari, the spokesman of the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, suggested Qatar would retaliate for Iran’s repeated attacks.
“Obviously, this cannot go unanswered,” he told CNN. “A price has to be paid for this blatant attack on our people.”
As of the afternoon, Mr. al-Anasri said Qatar was not contacting the Iranian government, even though it would always keep a channel of communication with the Iranians open.
Adam Rasgon is a reporter for The Times in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.
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