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Iran has admitted that it unintentionally shot down the Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed near Tehran Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board.
The plane was mistaken for a "hostile flight" after it turned toward a "sensitive military center" of the Revolutionary Guard, according to an official Iranian statement released early Saturday morning local time.
The crash occurred about three hours after Iran fired multiple missiles into Iraq, targeting U.S. military sites in retaliation for the American drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, one of its top generals.
"Hours after the missile strikes, US terrorist forces' military flights around the country increased, and defense centers received some news indicating observations of air targets (moving) towards strategic centers of country. Several targets appeared on some radar screens which increased the sensitivity in air defense complexes," the statement said.
"In such critical and critical conditions, Flight 737 of the Ukrainian Airlines departs from the Imam Khomeini Airport and, while in rotation, was completely in approaching position to a sensitive military center of the IRGC and reached at an altitude and shape of a hostile flight. In such circumstances, the plane was unintentionally hit due to human error, which unfortunately resulted in the martyrdom of dear compatriots and the death of a number of foreign nationals," said the statement.
The statement apologized for the disaster and said Iran would upgrade its military systems to eliminate future mistakes. It also said that those responsible for the error would be prosecuted.
"The General Staff of the Armed Forces expresses its condolences to the grieving families of the fellow nationals, and of the nationals of other countries, and also expresses its apology for the human error," the statement said. "It fully assures fundamental reforms in operational processes on the level of armed forces to make such unintentional errors impossible and to immediately report the culprit to the Judicial Organization of the Armed Forces to let it confront the mistakes legally."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also expressed his regret in a post to Twitter.
"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," Rouhani said. "Investigations continue to identify & prosecute this great tragedy & unforgivable mistake."
news source：abc news