Days after Iran carried out strikes on two U.S. airbases there’s evidence one of its surface-to-air missiles downed the Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed near Tehran.
But there’s a bit of back and forth over that.
While the U.S. says it’s “likely” Iran is responsible for downing the plane, Iran is accusing the U.S. of “spreading lines” and is denying claims that mistakenly shot it down, says CBS News.
In fact, according to the head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Authority, Ali Abedzadeh, as quoted by CNN, “If a rocket or missile hits a plane, it will free fall,” adding, “How can a plane be hit by a rocket or missile” and then “turn back to the airport?”
At the same time, the U.S. does believe the downed plane was accidental.
President Trump for example just noted, “Somebody could have made a mistake on the other side,” as quoted by CNN.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also said, “This may have been unintentional.”
Even British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also noted, “There is now a body of information that the flight was shot down by an Iranian Surface to Air Missile. This may well have been unintentional. We are working closely with Canada and our international partners and there now needs to be a full, transparent investigation.”
Right now, we know news agencies have obtained video that appears to show a missile strike around the same time the Ukrainian plane crashed earlier this week. We also know that Ukrainian investigators were given access to the plane’s black box, according to CNN, which includes recordings of communications between the pilot and Tehran flight control.
The U.S., the UK, Canada, and the European Commission are all calling for an independent and credible investigation into the incident that killed all 176 on board.
Stay tuned for more on this developing story.
