Iran claims airliner harassed by US jet

TEHERAN/BEIRUT－Iran on Friday dismissed a US explanation that a US jet was conducting a visual inspection when it "harassed" an Iranian civilian airliner, saying the plane was forced to rapidly change altitude to avoid collision, injuring and panicking passengers.

State TV video footage from inside the airliner shows a passenger lying immobile of the floor and another with a wounded nose and forehead, presenting his bloodied face mask to the camera.

Several passengers, some seen screaming and shouting, were injured in the incident over Syria on Thursday, according to Iranian media, but the US military said its F-15 jet was at a safe distance.

"The explanations provided so far are unjustified and unconvincing," Laya Joneydi, Iran's vice-president for legal affairs, was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

"The harassment of a passenger plane on the territory of a third country is a clear violation of aviation security and freedom of civilian aircraft."

The Iranian plane, belonging to Mahan Airlines, was heading from Teheran to Beirut when the pilot staged the safety maneuver. Iran's Foreign Ministry said the encounter would be investigated.

Video footage shows oxygen masks fallen from the overhead roof panels. One jet can be seen through a seat window flying some distance away in a clear blue sky.

"I saw a black plane approaching us, and then we lost our balance," one unidentified injured passenger told state TV. "It was a jet. Almost so near our plane."

The incident is the first of its kind in Syria but it adds to the tensions between the United States and Iran.

The US military's Central Command, which oversees the country's troops in the region, said the F-15 aircraft was conducting a visual inspection of the Iranian plane when it passed near the Tanf garrison in Syria, home to US forces.

Captain Bill Urban, the senior Central Command spokesman, said the jet was 1,000 meters from the airliner.

Earlier reports by Iranian media claimed that the passenger plane was "intimidated" by two Israeli fighter jets in the skies over the Lebanese capital Beirut on Thursday evening.

A reporter for Iranian state TV, who was on board the plane, said that the warplanes, which approached within 100 meters of the passenger plane, belonged to Israel, Tasnim news agency reported.

An Israeli military spokesman had no immediate comment.

Israel and the US have long accused Mahan Airlines of ferrying weapons for some military groups in Syria and elsewhere. The US imposed sanctions on Mahan Airlines in 2011, saying it provided financial and other support to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.

Agencies - Xinhua