FILE- In this Aug. 17, 2017 file photo, released by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, Saudi King Salman, left, walks with Qatari Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali Al Thani, right, at the monarch's vacation home in Tangiers, Morocco. Exiled Sheikh Abdullah, once promoted by Saudi Arabia amid its ongoing dispute with Doha, appeared in an online video posted Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018, and aired by Doha-based satellite news network Al-Jazeera, claiming he's being held against his will in the United Arab Emirates, an allegation denied by an Abu Dhabi official. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Bahrain released radar tracks on Tuesday it said showed Qatari fighter jets passing by Emirati commercial airliners on their way to the island nation, encounters which started a new dispute between the Gulf nations amid the diplomatic crisis gripping Doha.

The two alleged fly-bys on Monday morning could further escalate tensions between Qatar and the four Arab nations that have been boycotting it for months, among them the UAE, home to the world's busiest international airport. They also could affect long-haul airline travel, as the region's carriers are a crucial link between the East and West.

Emirati officials on Monday described the fly-bys as though the fighter jets "intercepted" their civilian aircraft. Qatari officials deny their jets intercepted the aircraft and on Tuesday dismissed the footage as "unauthenticated videos."

The UAE's allegations follow two complaints by Qatar to the United Nations about Emirati military aircraft allegedly violating its international airspace amid the diplomatic crisis. The UAE denies those allegations.

Bahrain state television aired radar footage the broadcaster described as showing Emirates flight No. EK837 from Dubai flying toward Bahrain International Airport at 3,170 metres (10,400 feet). Two other radar signals the broadcaster described as Qatari fighter jets flew at around 2,590 metres (8,500 feet) and crossed briefly in front of the Emirates plane's flight path. The radar screen briefly flashes orange text, likely a collision warning.

It wasn't clear from the footage at what distance the fighter jets allegedly passed the Emirates flight, but Bahrain previously described the distance as being 3.2 kilometres (2 miles).

The broadcaster also aired footage of an aeronautical chart it said showed a Qatari fighter jet flying across the flight path of a just-passed Etihad airliner, both at 24,000 metres (8,000 feet). It identified the flight as ETD23B, which corresponds to Etihad flight No. EY371, a direct Abu Dhabi-Bahrain flight that took off Monday morning.

Dubai-based Emirates and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad have declined to comment. Both flights flew in international waters just north of the tip of Qatar, a peninsular nation that juts into the Persian Gulf, before landing in nearby Bahrain.

The UAE's state-run WAM news agency on Monday quoted Saif al-Suwaidi, the director-general of its civil aviation division, as saying crew and passengers onboard the flights saw the military aircraft.

It "constituted a clear and explicit threat to the lives of innocent civilians," he said. On Tuesday, the UAE said it planned to file a complaint to the United Nations over what happened Monday.

Reached on Tuesday, Qatar's Government Communication Office dismissed the Bahrain state television report as part of a "smear campaign" against it by the UAE.

"These matter should be dealt with by filing a formal complaint to the U.N. Security Council, as Qatar has done following two breaches by UAE military aircraft of the state of Qatar's airspace, and not by distributing unauthenticated videos to the media as how the blockading nations have done since the start of the crisis," it said in a statement to The Associated Press.

At issue as well is language in the dispute. Intercepts normally refer to military jets flying alongside passenger planes and giving orders in emergencies. Military jets also don't necessarily file flight plans, as required by commercial airlines.

Qatar's stock exchange dropped some 2.5 per cent in trading Monday, one of its biggest jolts since the crisis began. On Tuesday, the market reversed the losses, closing up 2.58 per cent.

Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE cut off Qatar's land, sea and air routes on June 5 over its alleged support of extremists and close ties with Iran.

Qatar has long denied funding extremists. It recently restored full diplomatic relations with Iran, with which it shares a massive offshore natural gas field that makes the country and its 250,000 citizens extremely wealthy.

The crisis has hurt Qatar Airways, Doha's long-haul carrier that competes with Emirates and Etihad.

Qatar had complained to the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization about the boycotting nations cutting off its air routes, forcing the carrier to take longer flights through Iran and Turkey. Its regional feeder flights in Saudi Arabia and the UAE also have been cut off.

However, widening the Gulf dispute to include civilian aviation and airspace could hurt Emirati airlines already stung by President Donald Trump's travel bans, as well as last year's since-lifted ban on laptops in airplane cabins.

"I do think the tit for tat claims and the spillage into aviation risks tarnishing the reputation of the Gulf as a safe and secure location for the three global airlines that have made it their hub and a transit point for travellers," said Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a research fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

"With the Gulf airlines coming under pressure from even longer-range aircraft that are capable of bypassing their hubs altogether, it makes little sense to risk the reputation for comfort and security that the Gulf airlines have so assiduously built up," he added.

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Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellap . His work can be found at http://apne.ws/2galNpz .

News from © The Associated Press, 2018