(Newswire.net — January 12, 2020) — The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated days ago that a Ukrainian passenger jet was probably hit by mistake by Iranian air defense, and he was right. The Iranian government admits its air defense launched rockets to a target that was mistakenly seen as a threat.
Trudeau said that Iranian military had accidentally hit the plane of the Ukrainian airliner killing all 176 passengers onboard, after the Pentagon said the U.S. satellites recorded the infrared reflections of three launches of ground-to-air rockets seconds before the Boeing 737-800 was hit.
Meanwhile, U.S. News quoted an unnamed Pentagon official as well as an Iraqi intelligence officer and both said they believed the plane was hit by a Russian-made Tor missile which is part of the Iranian air defense system.
US President Donald Trump said Thursday he had “some doubts” that the downing of the Ukrainian airliner was not intentional. Tensions between Washington and Tehran began on January 3 when Iran’s most powerful general, Qasem Soleiman was killed in a US Airforce drone attack directly ordered by Donald Trump.
Under international air protocols, Iran has the right to conduct investigations, but manufacturers are usually involved. The Iranian government initially refused to hand out the flight data recorder found at the crash site.
Meanwhile, the New York Times published a video allegedly showing the moment the missile hits the Boeing airplane. The video shows a bright spot in the sky, presumably the rocket engine, that explodes after several moments, again presumably after hitting the Ukrainian airplane.
At first, Iran denied that its military was responsible for the plane crash, as the Boeing 737-800 took an unusual turn after takeoff which was interpreted as “a problem with the airplane”. The evidence, however, clearly suggests it was a missile that hit the ill fated airplane and the Iranian government was heavily pressured to come clean.
The Iranian Army General Staff released a statement that the tragic mistake was made amid the flare-up of tensions with Washington, Russia Today reports. The statement says the nation’s air defenses were placed on alert and ready to “respond to possible threats of the highest level.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to apologize on behalf of his country. Rouhani xpressed his condolences to the Ukrainian people as well as to the relatives of the victim, Kiev said.
Iranian officials allowed the presence of international investigators in the area of the 737-800 crash and Ukrainian investigators are already in Iran, investigating all parts of the plane that were scattered at the scene of the crash.
All 176 people on board the airliner were killed in the crash. Most of the victims were Iranian and Canadian nationals.