Plane carrying 63 Canadians shot down by Iran says Trudeau

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that his Government has information that flight 752 of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA), carrying  63f Canadian passengers was shot down by  “an Iranian missile.”

Trudeau added during a press conference in Ottawa that Canadian authorities believe the alleged demolition “may have been unintended.”

“We have intelligence from multiple sources, including our allies and our intelligence. The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian ground-air missile,” Trudeau said..

The Canadian prime minister avoided answering the media question directly if Canada considered the United States ultimately responsible for the accident if it was confirmed that the Ukrainian plane, in which 63 Canadians were traveling, was shot down by an Iranian missile.

“It is one of the many issues that people may have,” Trudeau initially said, adding later that it is too early to assign responsibility. But the prime minister also did not openly reject the possible American responsibility.

The accident, in which the 176 occupants of the plane died, occurred shortly after Iran launched dozens of ground-to-ground missiles against two military bases in Iraq used by the United States in retaliation for the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Suleimaní in a U.S. military operation

Trudeau merely pointed out that the preliminary information that Canada has “reinforces the need for a thorough investigation” of the accident and that Iran allows access to Canadian investigators.

“We are working with Ukrainian investigators and we are continuing to request that Canada be involved. We will continue that conversation,” said Trudeau, who mentioned the phone call that the foreign ministers of Canada and Iran held in the early hours of Thursday to deal with the accident.

Trudeau’s press conference comes shortly after US President Donald Trump declared that he suspected that UIA Flight 752 did not suffer an accident.