Iran confirms missiles fired at airliner

TEHERAN－Iran's civil aviation authority confirmed two missiles were fired at a Ukrainian airliner that was brought down this month, in a preliminary report posted on its website late on Monday.

"Investigators ... discovered that two Tor-M1 missiles ... were fired at the aircraft," it said, adding an investigation was ongoing to assess the bearing their impact had on the accident.

The statement confirms a report in The New York Times that included video footage appearing to show two projectiles being fired at the aircraft.

The Tor-M1 is a short-range surface-to-air missile developed by the former Soviet Union that is designed to target aircraft or cruise missiles.

The Kiev-bound Ukraine International Airlines plane was shot down in a catastrophic error shortly after takeoff from Teheran on Jan 8, killing all 176 people on board.

Three days later, Iran's armed forces confirmed that the airliner was shot down "unintentionally" by the military, as the plane "was mistaken for a hostile target" near an Iranian "sensitive military site of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps".

The incident occurred amid heightened tensions between Iran and the United States. Hours before the crash, Iran launched missile attacks on two Iraqi bases hosting US troops, in retaliation for the US killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

The Revolutionary Guard's aerospace commander Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh accepted full responsibility, but said the missile operator who opened fire had been acting independently.

Kiev on Monday urged Teheran to return the black boxes－containing the flight data recordersfrom the passenger plane.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said returning the black boxes would show that Iran was committed to an unbiased investigation of the tragedy.

Prystaiko was speaking as an Iranian delegation led by Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami was visiting Kiev to discuss the incident.

"His main task is to apologize and acknowledge what happened. We hope that we can go a little further than just political discussions and discuss practical problems. Among them, in particular, is the return of the black boxes," Prystaiko said.

Iran said on Sunday it was trying to analyze the black boxes, denying an earlier report it would hand them to Ukraine.

The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Iranian experts were expected to assess Ukraine's technical ability to decode the black boxes. A statement said the wreckage of the aircraft was to be returned to Ukraine.

Agencies - Xinhua