JEDDAH, 1 September — Saudi Arabia confirmed yesterday the death of one of its pilots shot down in the 1991 Gulf War after a series of DNA tests proved that Iraq was not holding him as a prisoner. “Specialized DNA laboratories proved that the remains are those of Saudi pilot Lt. Col. Muhammad Saleh Nadira,” an official source at the Saudi Defense Ministry told the Saudi Press Agency. “After verifying the laboratory data, the ministry is now certain that Lt. Col. Nadira was martyred,” the source said. Nadira’s plane was shot down in a part of Iraq which had largely become inaccessible during the Gulf War because of mines placed by the international coalition to limit the movement of Iraqi troops.