Asia

Home page

Asia

Military: Iran identified Ukrainian jet as enemy aircraft awaiting US response to strikes

11 January 2020 10:02 (UTC +04:00)

The Iranian forces falsely recognised the Ukrainian Boeing 737 as an enemy military plane and downed it, waiting for a US response to its strikes on US bases in Iraq, the Iranian General Staff said on Saturday, APA reports citing Sputnik.

“Amid the threats of the criminal [US] president and military command to hit multiple targets in Iran as well as given the unprecedented air activity in the region, the country’s armed forces were put on highest combat alert to respond to possible threats”, the General Staff said in a statement.

The General Staff said that after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport, the Ukrainian plane approached a military facility and was falsely identified as an enemy aircraft and shot down.