Iranian Military makes new claims over shooting down of the Ukrainian plane
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TEHRAN - Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crashed near Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport minutes after takeoff on 8 January.
Two missiles were fired at the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 that was shot down on 8 January by the Iranian armed forces, according to a preliminary investigation report by the Iranian Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO).
"Investigators... discovered that two Tor-M1 missiles... were fired at the aircraft," report said, adding an investigation was ongoing to assess the bearing their impact had on the accident.
On Sunday, the head of Iran's civil aviation investigative authority, Hassan Rezaeifar, said that Iran was independently decoding the flight data recorders from the downed Ukrainian plane and that Tehran has not yet decided whether the black boxes would be sent abroad
Ukraine International Airlines’ Kiev-bound Boeing 737-800 crashed on 8 January, soon after departing from Iran’s Imam Khomeini Airport. Citizens of Iran, Canada, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom were among the 176 passengers and crew who perished.
The Iranian military has admitted to unintentionally shooting down the Ukrainian plane, having confused it with a hostile cruise missile in anticipation of US retaliation to Iran's massive attack against Iraqi bases housing US military personnel. The Iranian leadership expressed deep regret over the developments, describing the tragedy as an "unforgivable mistake."- Sputnik
