Newsweek is reporting via “a Pentagon official, a senior U.S. intelligence official and an Iraqi intelligence official” that the Ukrainian Boeing 737-800 that crashed on its way from Tehran to Kiev was actually shot down with an anti-aircraft missile by accident:
#BREAKING: Ukrainian flight that crashed just outside the Iranian capital of Tehran was struck by an anti-aircraft missile system – 2 Pentagon officials and an Iraqi intelligence official told @Newsweek
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) January 9, 2020
#BREAKING: Two Pentagon officials tell @Newsweek assess that the incident was accidental and that the Iranian anti-missile system was operared by mistake https://t.co/WxvxukeLnM
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) January 9, 2020
Kind of a big whoops, if true:
NEW — Pentagon and Iraqi Intel tell Newsweek that an Iranian missile struck the Ukrainian flight outside Tehran this week:
• Two Pentagon officials assess that the incident was accidental.
• Iran's anti-aircraft were likely active following Iraq attack— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) January 9, 2020
Full article here:
A "senior U.S. intelligence official and an Iraqi intelligence official" told @Newsweek that Iran hit the Ukrainian flight that crashed just outside Tehran with an anti-aircraft missile. https://t.co/T86rQjfZUj
— Kelly Jane Torrance (@KJTorrance) January 9, 2020
Maybe it’s time to stop taking what “Iran investigators say” at face value?
Ukraine flight was on fire and returning to Tehran at time of crash, Iran investigators say https://t.co/tGCquMiZz8
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 9, 2020
There’s been “increased speculation” that the passenger jet was taken down by a missile. From NBC’s Tom Costello:
Increased speculation that a Russian Tor rocket may have brought down a Ukrainian plane in Iran. The latest info and evidence on @TODAYshow
— Tom Costello (@tomcostellonbc) January 9, 2020
And Ukraine wants its experts to “examine the crash site to look for missile fragments”:
Ukraine National Security Advisor: We are investigating whether the UIA airliner was shot down by a Russian-made Tor missile and our experts, including MH17 investigators, in Iran seek to examine the crash site to look for missile fragments. https://t.co/kRgSg9fcWX
— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) January 9, 2020
“Our commission … plans to search for debris of a Russian surface-to-air Tor missile, according to information which was published on the internet,” top Ukrainian security official said on Thurs.
— michael safi (@safimichael) January 9, 2020
An unconfirmed photo shared to social media appears to show part of a Russian Tor missile that was allegedly found near the crash:
Second image (right) of Tor anti-aircraft missile debris, supposedly from near the #PS752 crash site. Still unverified, and still going to be very hard to geolocate it based on what's visible in the image. h/t @Liberalist_30 pic.twitter.com/TQNRp6hopj
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) January 9, 2020
A Tor missile’s warhead is reportedly behind the nose cone which would explain why, if that is indeed the missile that took down the jet, is intact:
A number of people have asked why the front of the Tor missile survives intact. As the below diagram shows, the warhead (marked 13) is not in the front of the missile, but about midway. Source https://t.co/msvYkwyEwq (h/t @cthulhu985) pic.twitter.com/Z4rhrHXf8D
— Bellingcat (@bellingcat) January 9, 2020
We’ll keep you posted.
Update: CBS News now reporting this as well:
BREAKING from CBS: US officials are confident the Ukrainian Airplane was shot down by #Iran. US intel picked up signals of the radar being turned on and satellite detected infrared blips of two missile launches, probably SA-15s, followed by another infrared blip of an explosion.
— Christina Ruffini (@EenaRuffini) January 9, 2020
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