Ukraine prosecutor investigating ‘willful killing’ in Iran plane attack

The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said on Saturday it is investigating possible willful killing and aircraft destruction in its probe of the crash of a Ukrainian airliner in Iran.

Iran said its military mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian plane, killing all 176 aboard, saying air defenses were fired in error while on alert in the tense aftermath of Iranian missile strikes on US targets in Iraq.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards offered an explanation and apology on Saturday for the shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner in Iran earlier this week, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Senior commander of the Aerospace Force of the Revolutionary Guards, Amir Ali Hajizadeh said in a press briefing on Saturday that the Ukrainian plane was misidentified as a cruise missile by an air Defense operator.