Canadian PM Trudeau: Iranian missile likely downed Ukrainian flight

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that intelligence suggests a Ukrainian airliner carrying dozens of his citizens was shot down by an Iranian missile — but stressed that the strike “may have been unintentional.”

“The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile,” said Trudeau in a press conference, citing both “our allies and our own intelligence.”

Trudeau’s announcement echoed earlier conclusions by US officials that an errant Iranian missile was to blame for the tragedy.

Moments after taking off from Tehran early Wednesday, the Boeing 737-800 plummeted from the sky and crashed in a ball of fire, killing all 176 people aboard, among them 63 Canadians.

The crash marked Canada’s worst loss of life in an aviation disaster in 35 years.

The plane was downed shortly after Iran unleashed a 22-missile barrage on two Iraqi bases quartering US troops, an act of vengeance for an American drone strike that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

Officials now believe that the plane was struck by a surface-to-air missile, a moment apparently captured on chilling video released Thursday by The New York Times.

“This may well have been unintentional,” said Trudeau.

Asked whether he believed that the strike that killed Soleimani was the first domino in a chain that led to the crash, Trudeau demurred.

“I think it is too soon to be drawing conclusions or assigning blame or responsibility in whatever proportions,” he said.

With Post Wires