Canada, UK leaders: Airliner hit by missile
Credit to Author: Associated Press| Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2020 16:18:48 +0000
Several news organizations have obtained video that appears to show a missile being fired into the Tehran sky and striking an object, around the same time that a Ukrainian plane crashed just after taking off from the city’s airport.
News of the video came hours after the leaders of Canada and Britain said they had intelligence that the Ukrainian airliner was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose country lost 63 citizens in the crash of Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 earlier this week, said Canada’s intelligence, as well as intelligence provided by allies, shows that the commercial aircraft was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.
He called for a thorough investigation into what caused the crash but would not provide additional details about the evidence and intelligence he cited. “This may have been unintentional,” Trudeau said at a news conference in Ottawa.
Not long after Trudeau’s news conference, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his country’s intelligence service had come to the same conclusion. “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,” Johnson said in a statement.
“The [United Kingdom] continues to call on all sides urgently to deescalate to reduce tensions in the region,” he added.
A news agency reported earlier Thursday that the United States increasingly believes Iran mistakenly shot down the airliner, according to multiple US officials. The working theory is based on continuing analysis of data from satellites, radar and electronic data collected routinely by US military and intelligence.
A US official familiar with the intelligence said the plane was shot down by two Russian made SA-15 surface to air missiles. The US saw Iranian radar signals lock onto the jetliner, before it was shot down.
The morning after the incident, US analysts discovered the data, but took another day to verify, the official said
Video sent to CNN appears to show a missile fired into the Tehran sky early Wednesday and striking an object in the sky. Around that time, the Ukranian airliner crashed shortly after takeoff.
The news organization cannot verify the authenticity of the video, but the buildings seen in it appears similar to ones that are in the Iranian capitol suburb of Parand. The Ukrainian plane crashed just north of the suburb.