On July 3, 1988 US shooting Iran Air Passenger Plane over Persian Gulf
On July 3, 1988 US shooting Iran Air Passenger Plane over Persian Gulf
Iranian Forces shoot down intruding US Global Hawk Unmaned drone over Hormoz Strait in Persian Gulf but hesitate to target 38-maned spying airplane. compare: USS Vincennes shot down IranAir Flight 655 carrying 290 civilians on 3 July 1988 by a missile.
Shooting down of Iranian civilian airliner
Wednesday July 3rd 2019 was the 31st anniversary of the shooting down of an Iranian civilian airliner by a US warship in the Persian Gulf.
Iran Air Flight 655, also known as IR655, a civilian airliner en route from Bandar Abbas, Iran, to Dubai, UAE was shot down by U.S. Navy"s guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes, on Sunday 3 July 1988, killing all 290 passengers and crew on board, including 66 children. At the time of the attack Vincennes was traversing the Straits of Hormuz, inside Iranian territorial waters – in clear violation of international law, and IR655 was within Iranian airspace.
The US understood from the beginning that if the whole truth about the Vincennes came out, there would be an international outcry, so to justify this terrible action at sea it told lies and handed out medals to try to hide the truth. The first lie was the assertion that the Vincennes"s control room had identified the Airbus to be an F-14.
Needless to say, later investigation proved this assertion wrong. After all, how could the navy"s most expensive surface warship, designed to track and shoot down as many as 200 incoming missiles at once, mistake a huge airbus in the clear skies of the Persian Gulf for a fighter jet? Impossible!
Besides, on that clear day the Vincennes"s powerful Spy radar had picked up Iran Air"s Flight 655 lifting off from the airport at Bandar Abbas. The plane was in fact on its twice-a-week scheduled flight to Dubai.
The SC only expressed regret at the loss of lives, but there was no condemnation of the USA. To add salt to injury the captain of USS Vincennes, Capt. Will C. Rogers III, was awarded the Legion of Merit decoration "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service. The men of the Vincennes were all awarded combat-action ribbons.
As Americans set off fireworks and gun salutes to mark Independence Day we ask all, including Americans, to join the Iranian nation to remember those innocent Iranian jetliner passengers who are amongst the thousands, if not millions, who have become victims of the US deviation from the ideals of its founding fathers.