Published 10:40 IST, January 11th 2020
Iran's foreign minister admits “human error” led to downing Ukrainian Jet carrying 176
Javad Zarif confirmed the country's military officials 'unintentionally' shot down the Ukrainian jetliner because of a 'human error', killing all 176 aboard.
Foreign Minister of Iran Javad Zarif on Saturday took to his Twitter and confirmed that preliminary conclusions of the internal investigation by Iran's Armed Forces revealed the military 'unintentionally' shot down the Ukrainian jetliner because of a human error. Ukraine international flight 752 was traveling from Tehran for Kyiv went it crashed killing all 176 people on board. The Ukraine Embassy in Iran had earlier ruled out any terrorism and said that the plane had suffered engine failure.
Zarif in a his post admitted the 'Human error' at the time of crisis by US adventurism and further apologised to the families of the victims.
Even the western leaders had said the plane appeared to have been unintentionally hit by a surface-to-air missile just hours after Iran launched around a dozen ballistic missiles at two U.S. bases in Iraq to avenge the killing of its top general in an American airstrike last week.
US officials on the plane crash
As per the investigations, US sources report that the Ukraine plane crash could have very well been caused by an Iranian missile that might have hit it accidentally. Iran had fired a missile during the same time as the Ukranian flight was going over the country. A series of ballistic missiles were fired by Iran during its operation against the US.
US President Donald Trump, in a statement, blamed Iran for striking down the Ukranian aircraft. However, as per reports, the US officials have denied naming the intelligence agency that they have been citing. The Iranian intelligence report, on the other hand, blamed the technical malfunction in the Ukranian aircraft as a reason for the crash.
Updated 10:47 IST, January 11th 2020