Iran's General Staff Knew Ukrainian Plane Was Mistakenly Downed Since Wednesday IRGC

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th January, 2020) The general staff of Iran's armed forces knew the real cause of the fatal plane crash near Tehran since Wednesday but kept it secret from the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization authorities, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) aerospace force commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh said on Saturday.

"The civil aviation has not been informed that the reason [for Ukraine's Boeing 737-800 to crash in Tehran] was a missile, so they had no information. I learned about it on Wednesday morning. The general staff of the armed forces formed a group to investigate the incident and those who knew about it were isolated, and we were asked to keep it secret," Hajizadeh said at a press conference.

According to Hajizadeh, the Civil Aviation Organization staff's actions were correct, given that they knew nothing at the time, so the entire responsibility rests with the IRGC and the General Staff.

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crashed near Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport minutes after takeoff on Wednesday. All 176 people on board were killed.

Iran's initial version was that the plane had crashed due to engine failure, but on Saturday the general staff of armed forces admitted to having confused the Ukrainian plane with a hostile cruise missile and shot it down.