According to a report in Aljazeera, Iranian military has issued a statement saying that it mistook Flight 752 for a ‘hostile target’ and shot it down mistakenly.
The military has said that the plane flew close to a ‘sensitive military site’.
The military stated that it was at its ‘highest level of readiness’ due to rising tensions with the United States, and in such a condition, due to human error, the flight was hit unintentionally.
The military has issued an apology and said that it would upgrade its system.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has expressed ‘deep regret over the disastrous mistake’. He has said investigations were underway to ‘identify and prosecute this great tragedy’.
On Friday, foreign media had shown videos that were claimed to have been of a missile hitting the Ukranian plane that crashed following take-off near Tehran airport on Tuesday, a claim that Iranian authorities strongly denied.