Iran on Saturday said its military “unintentionally” fired a missile at a Ukrainian passenger plane killing 176 people because of “human error.”
The Ukraine plane came down on Wednesday shortly after Iran launched missiles at bases hosting American forces in Iraq in response to the killing of Qasem Soleimani, one of Iran’s top generals, in a US drone strike.
In a statement by military officials early Saturday, Iran admitted hitting Ukrainian International Airlines flight 752 with a missile earlier this week.
According to Iran, the Ukrainian plane flew too close to a sensitive military site and was mistaken for a threat.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said: “The Islamic Republic of Iran deeply regrets this disastrous mistake,”
“Armed Forces’ internal investigation has concluded that regrettably missiles fired due to human error caused the horrific crash of the Ukrainian plane & death of 176 innocent people,”
Iran initially denied responsibility for the plane crash, which it blamed on a mechanical problem with the jet, a Boeing 737-800.
Not long after Iran admitted shooting down the plane, its foreign minister decided to also blame the US.
In a tweet, Javad Zarif described the cause as “human error at a time of crisis caused by US adventurism.”
Read also: Iran mistakenly shoots down Ukrainian plane-US claims
Iran has invited the United States, Ukraine, Canada and others to join them in the investigation.
The majority of passengers on UIA Flight PS752 which had just taken off from Tehran were mostly Iranian-Canadian dual nationals but also included Ukrainians, Afghans, Britons and Swedes.
May the souls of the lives lost Rest In Peace.
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