Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Fired Two Missiles at Ukrainian Passenger Plane

The New York Times has verified the authenticity of new video footage of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ missile attack on a Ukrainian passenger plane. The video shows that the Guards fired two missiles at the aircraft with a 30-second time interval between them.

The release of new video footage of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ missile attack on a Ukrainian passenger plane has once again raised doubts about the accuracy of information released by Iranian Islamic Republic officials. The authenticity of this video, which was distributed on social media, has been verified by The New York Times.

The French news agency (AFP) covered the release of this new video on December 25 (January 15) with a report from Washington.

The video shows two missiles being fired by the Revolutionary Guards’ air defense at Ukraine’s Boeing 737 aircraft. All 176 passengers and crew members of this Ukrainian aircraft died as a result of this missile attack.

The video shows that the Revolutionary Guards’ air defense, contrary to statements by Islamic Republic officials, fired two missiles at the aforementioned aircraft with a 30-second time interval between them.

The video also explains why the aircraft’s signal transmission system failed. According to the aforementioned news agency’s report, the aircraft’s transponder was disabled as a result of the first missile impact.

The first missile impact catches fire, but the aircraft does not crash. The pilot, after losing the transponder signal, attempts to return to the airport. The New York Times continues to report that the aircraft was then struck by a second missile and exploded minutes later.

Contradictions by Iranian Officials

The Islamic Republic of Iran concealed news of the Revolutionary Guards’ air defense missile attack on the aforementioned aircraft for several days. Subsequently, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Aerospace Force, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, admitted to the missile strike on the aircraft and claimed it was due to “human error.”

Islamic Republic officials later reported that one missile was fired at the aircraft. This is while the released video indicates that two missiles were fired by the Revolutionary Guards’ air defense.

The “Tasnim” news agency even reported on Tuesday, December 24, that a person who filmed the incident of the missile striking the Ukrainian passenger aircraft had been arrested.

In this news agency’s report, it stated: “Following the circulation of images of the missile strike on the Tehran-Kyiv passenger aircraft on social media, the Tehran Thaar-Allah Command Center proceeded to identify and apprehend the person who released the aforementioned video in order to investigate and determine the causes and factors involved in this incident, and the results of the investigation will subsequently be made available to the noble people of Iran.”

It should be noted that Gholam-Hossein Ismaili, spokesman for the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in his eighteenth press conference held on December 24, claimed that several people had been arrested in connection with the missile attack on the Ukrainian aircraft. It remains unclear how many people, besides the videographer of the missile impact scene, were arrested and in what capacity and position.

Source: DW