The US military said its F-15 had kept a safe distance.
Dubai:
Iran said on Friday that a US fighter jet “harassed” an Iranian civilian airliner in an act of terrorism that injured and panicked passengers, dismissing a US account that the plane was simply performing a visual inspection .
State TV video footage of the interior of the Mahan Air airliner showed a passenger motionless on the ground and another with an injured nose and forehead, presenting his bloodied face mask to the camera.
Several passengers, some screaming and screaming, were injured during the flight maneuver over Syria as the airliner quickly changed altitude to avoid a collision, Iranian media reported.
The US military said its F-15 had kept a safe distance.
Its central command, which oversees US troops in the region, said the fighter was performing a visual inspection of the airliner as it passed near Tanf garrison in Syria, which is home to US forces.
The inspection was carried out in accordance with international standards “at a safety distance of approximately 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) … to ensure the safety of coalition personnel at Tanf garrison,” the door said. – Keynote, Captain Bill Urban.
“Once the pilot of the F-15 identified the aircraft as a Mahan Air passenger plane, the F-15 moved safely away from the plane.”
The United States has long accused Mahan Air of transporting weapons for Iranian-linked guerrillas in Syria and elsewhere and has imposed sanctions on the airline since 2011.
The pilot of the passenger plane contacted the jet pilots to warn them to keep a safe distance and they identified themselves as Americans, the state-run Iranian news agency IRIB reported.
According to the semi-official ISNA news agency, Iranian Highway Minister Mohammad Eslami said Tehran had filed a complaint with the International Civil Aviation Organization, calling Thursday’s incident ” terrorist act, an act of aggression “.
Laya Joneydi, vice president of legal affairs, reportedly declared by Iranian media that the US action was “the harassment of a passenger plane” and a “flagrant violation of aviation safety”.
“The explanations provided so far (by the US military) are unwarranted and unconvincing,” she said.
The powerful Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement condemned the incident in a statement as a “terrorist act … which could have had consequences of unknown magnitude in the region.”
“ELECTION GAME”?
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the meeting could be linked to the upcoming US presidential election, state media reported.
“The security of West Asia must not become a toy in the US election campaign,” ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said. He didn’t elaborate.
“Iran will not leave any hostile action against its nation unanswered and will respond decisively and appropriately to any irrational action in due course,” Mousavi said.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused the United States of endangering civilian passengers. “These outlaws must be stopped before the disaster strikes,” he tweeted.
The Iranian plane was heading from Tehran to Beirut.
Video footage showed oxygen masks falling from roof panels. A jet can be seen through a seat window flying from a distance into a clear blue sky.
“I saw a black plane approaching us, then we lost our balance,” said an unidentified injured passenger.
“It was a jet. Almost so close to our plane.”
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
