U.S. officials are quoted as saying they believe the Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed in Iran was mistakenly brought down by an Iranian missile.
Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS 752 crashed on January 8 soon after taking off from the Iranian capital, Tehran, killing all 176 people on board.
The tragedy came hours after Iran fired missiles at bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq.
Unidentified U.S. officials said they were confident that Iranian air defense systems accidentally downed the Boeing 737-800, based on satellite, radar, and electronic data, according to U.S. media.
Newsweek quoted a Pentagon and a senior U.S. intelligence official, as well as an Iraqi intelligence official, as saying they believed the Ukrainian plane was hit by a Russian-made Tor missile.
CBS News, quoting U.S. intelligence, said a satellite detected infrared “blips” of two missile launches, followed by another blip of an explosion.
The Pentagon declined to comment.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he had “suspicions” about the crash, saying the plane “was flying in a pretty rough neighborhood and somebody could have made a mistake.”
“Some people say it was mechanical. I personally don’t think that’s even a question,” Trump said, adding that “something very terrible happened.”
Ukraine’s top security official, Oleksiy Danilov, earlier said it was examining whether a missile strike brought down the aircraft.
Source » radiofarda