Intelligence officials from multiple countries reportedly now believe it is very likely that an Iranian anti-aircraft missile shot down a Ukraine International Airlines jet departing from Tehran, killing all 176 people on board early Wednesday. The crash occurred only hours after Iran had retaliated for the killing of a high-ranking military general, Qassem Soleimani, by firing more than a dozen missiles at military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq.
Newsweek first reported that two anonymous U.S. intelligence officials and one Iraqi intelligence official determined that a Russian-built Tor-M1 surface-to-air missile system, also known as a Gauntlet, had hit the aircraft. They also said that Iran’s anti-aircraft systems were likely active following the retaliatory missile strike. Other news outlets subsequently confirmed Newsweek’s report, and intelligence officials from the U.K. and Europe have come to a similar conclusion.
CBS noted that a satellite operated by U.S. intelligence detected infrared blips from two missile launches, and then another blip indicating an explosion. USA Today reported that photos circulating on social media appear to show fragments of a Gauntlet missile in a garden near the crash site, though the authenticity of the photos has not been definitively established.
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