ABC: Satellite heat signatures indicate flight PS752 was downed by Iranian missile

YEREVAN, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. US intelligence is confident that Iran “painted the Ukrainian airliner with radar and fired two surface-to-air missiles that brought down the aircraft”, ABC News reported citing an unnamed US official.

Moreover, according to ABC News the official claimed that an American satellite had detected the heat signature of the two missiles as they approached flight PS752.

It's "highly likely" the Ukrainian passenger planethat crashed Wednesday morning killing all 176 on board, was shot down by Iran, the U.S. official told ABC News.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the same assessment.

"We have intelligence from multiple sources, including our allies and our own intelligence. The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile," Trudeau told reporters on Thursday.

"This may well have been unintentional," he added.

US President Donald Trump said earlier in the day at the White House that he didn't know whether the airliner had been shot down by Iran, but "I have my suspicions."

Iranian investigators on Wednesday said they had recovered the plane's "black box" flight recorder and were studying it.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan