“I wished I were dead”: Iran's Guard commander accepts responsibility for Ukraine plane shootdown

The Ukrainian jetliner, carrying 176 passengers on board, was shot down accidentally, says Iran

General Amir Ali Hajizadeh (R), Iran's Head of the Revolutionary Guard's aerospace division. File Photo.

An Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander on Saturday said his unit accepts “full responsibility” for the accidental shootdown of a Ukrainian passenger plane .

In an address broadcast by state TV on Saturday, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh says that when he learned about the downing of the plane, which killed all 176 passengers on board, “I wished I were dead.”

Iran’s armed forces say they mistook the passenger plane for a hostile target in the tense aftermath of Iran’s ballistic missile attack on two military bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops. That attack was retaliation for the killing of Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, in an American airstrike in Baghdad.