Iran has admitted the responsibility for the crash of Ukraine's passenger plane Boeing 737. The country accepted the responsibility through a statement on Saturday (Jan. 11) local time.
Citing the statement, Iranian state television said Iran's air defense system had accidentally fired the plane, which was a mechanical error. The missile attacked the aircraft it was crossing over a sensitive area of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
The responsible will be held accountable for the incident, the statement said.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani wrote on social media about this, saying that our entire country is deeply sorry for this mistake. I extend my condolences to the families of all those killed in the plane crash. An investigation into the incident is underway. Action will be taken against those involved in this tragic incident.
Iran has previously denied the blame that the plane that crashed near Tehran had crashed in an Iranian missile attack. But the Westerners, including the United States, Canada, and others were claiming that this had happened in the Iranian missile attack.
According to CBS News, quoting US intelligence sources and a satellite has detected two missile were fired at the aircraft. The satellite also detected another explosion.
US news media speculated that Iran was ready to resist retaliation after the attack on US bases. They (Iran) mistakenly attacked the passenger plane as a war plane.
It may be mentioned here that the plane crashed shortly after an Iranian missile attack on a US base in Iraq. And 176 people were killed in the incident. Of the dead, 82 were Iranians, 63 were Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, 4 Afghans and three Germans, it is learnt.