The responsibility for the erroneous missile strike on a passenger plane of Ukraine’s International Airlines was assumed by the commander of the aerospace forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Amir Ali Hajizade.
“I personally take full responsibility for the fact that the Ukrainian plane was unintentionally shot down,” the military leader said, emphasizing that he was ready to be punished.
According to him, he learned about the tragedy while in the west of the country, at the end of Operation Martyr Suleimani, in the framework of which a blow was inflicted on American military facilities in Iraq.
“When I was convinced that this had happened, I wished myself dead, because it would be better if I died, but did not witness such an incident. All our lives we will be responsible for the death of people, and today our honor is exposed before the Lord, ”Hajizadeh said at a press conference.
He assured that the investigation will continue “at a higher level”, and information about what happened will be supplemented.
“But from the very beginning I declare that our necks are thinner than a hair, and we recognize all responsibility and are ready to submit to any decision that the leadership will take,” he continued.
As News Front previously reported, UIA’s Boeing-737 aircraft crashed via Tehran-Kiev shortly after takeoff from the Imam Khomeini Airport in the Iranian capital. All 168 passengers and 9 crew members on board were killed. Following an internal investigation into the Iranian Air Force, Tehran admitted that the cause of the disaster was a missile strike. According to the Iranian General Staff, the ship flew too close to a sensitive military facility, and the human factor played a decisive role.