Iran admits shooting down Ukrainian airliner in ‘unintentional human error’
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iranian military on Saturday admitted that it accidentally shot down the Ukrainian airliner that crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran's airport on Wednesday morning, killing all 176 passengers in an incident caused by “unintentional human error.”
The reason, it explained, was that the country’s defenses were on “the highest level of readiness” in anticipation of a possible US retaliation to Tehran’s missile strikes the night before on American targets in Iraq.
The Ukrainian Boeing 737–800 was heading from the Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran to Kiev. Shortly after the incident, reports indicated that the aircraft may have been shot down by Iranian rockets from its missile defense system.
This occurred just hours after the Iranian aerospace force fired ballistic missiles on Iraqi bases that house American troops, in an operation dubbed “Martyr Soleimani,” widely publicized by Iranian media as Tehran’s “severe revenge” for the killing of its top general Qasim Soleimani.
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“Under these conditions, due to unintentional human error, the mentioned airplane was targeted, which unfortunately led to a collective martyrdom of fellow citizens and foreigners,” read a statement from by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, published on the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted, “Human error at [a] time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster,” adding, “Our profound regrets, apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims, and to other affected nations.”
Initially, Iranian officials said reports indicating that its military had shot down the aircraft were “illogical” and “psychological warfare.”
Among the casualties were a large number of dual-nationals, including dozens of Iranian-Canadians. A day after the incident, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a press conference that intelligence showed an Iranian surface-to-air missile had shot down the plane but added that it may have been unintentional.
Editing by John J. Catherine