Iranians commemorated the 29th anniversary of the downing of a passenger plane by a US Navy guided-missile cruiser in the Persian Gulf waters in 1988.
The civilian aircraft, an Airbus A300B2, was flying in Iranian airspace over the Strait of Hormuz from the port city of Bandar Abbas to Dubai, carrying 274 passengers and 16 crew members on July 3, 1988, when USS Vincennes fired two SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles at it.
One of the missiles hit the plane, killing all the 290 onboard.
On Monday, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement to commemorate the victims and once again censure the US Navy’s “horrific crime”, Press TV reported.
US officials claimed the warship had mistaken Iran Air Flight 655 for a warplane.
The statement added that the Iranian people hold to account the so-called advocates of human rights for ordering and perpetrating this atrocity.
Iran wants all those behind the tragedy to be held accountable for the crime, said the statement, adding that the Iranian nation will never “forgive the perpetrators”.
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