Doha — Qatar has been yanked from cautious mediator to frontline combatant after its air force shot down two Iranian fighter jets and helped intercept a wave of IRGC missiles and drones, only for fresh explosions to rock the outskirts of Doha hours later.

The crisis began when Qatari radar tracked multiple Iranian aircraft and unmanned systems cutting across its airspace on what Tehran later called a “reconnaissance and support mission.” After repeated radio warnings went unanswered and one jet reportedly locked its radar on a coalition base, Qatari Rafales launched air‑to‑air missiles, blasting both fighters out of the sky over the Gulf. Debris rained into the water and onto a remote industrial zone, sparking fires visible from the capital’s seafront.

Almost simultaneously, ground‑based defenses and U.S. assets in the country engaged incoming ballistic and cruise missiles, shooting down most before impact. But by nightfall, Doha’s residents again heard blasts as stray fragments and at least one intercepted drone crashed near logistics facilities west of the city, briefly setting warehouses ablaze and sending panicked civilians flooding social media.

Qatar’s government insists it acted in self‑defense, accusing Iran of “reckless violations” and calling for an emergency Arab and UN meeting. In Tehran, IRGC hardliners brand Doha a “servant of the Zionist‑American axis” and threaten further “punishment.”

With Qatari jets now firing on Iranian aircraft and explosions echoing near its capital, the tiny Gulf state finds itself at the center of a widening war it once hoped only to host talks about — not to fight in.