The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) blamed the United States’ terrorist adventurism for the tragic crash of a Ukrainian passenger plane in Iran last year.
In a statement on Wednesday, on the anniversary of the crash, the IRGC remembered the Iranians who were killed onboard a Ukrainian plane that was mistakenly shot down in Iran’s airspace in January 2020 shortly after the aircraft’s takeoff en route to Kiev.
The crash of the Ukrainian passenger plane, which occurred after the US ‘adventurism’ and its terrorist crime of assassinating Iran’s top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Suleimani and the subsequent IRGC missile strike on the terrorists’ Ain al-Assad base in Iraq, had left the Iranian nation completely bereft, the statement said.
“The heavy burden of parting with the dear children of Iran is very hard and poignant, and this is a bitter incident that took place in the wake of the US’ inhumane acts of adventurism and terrorist acts in the region,” the statement added, as reported by Tasnim news agency.
“It once again proved the zenith of malice and spite of global arrogance against the Islamic Republic and the people of Iran.”
While sympathizing with bereaved families of the victims, and emphasizing on using the reports of specialized committees to prevent occurrence of similar accidents, the IRGC pledged a “harsh revenge” against “hostilities and conspiracies of the global arrogance.”
The Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, en route to Kiev and carrying mostly Iranians and Iranian-Canadians, crashed minutes after takeoff near capital Tehran, killing all the 176 on board.
Iranian authorities say the Ukrainian airliner had been mistaken with a cruise missile when it was shot down southwest of Tehran.
The incident happened at a time when the Islamic Republic’s air defense systems were at the highest possible level of alert following the United States’ earlier assassination of Lt. Gen. Suleimani in neighboring Iraq.
Source: Iranian media
