Facts about the Flight Iran Air 655 shot down by American Vessel
An Iran Air Flight 655 (AR 655) was shot down by naval vessel Vincennes on July 3 in the Persian Gulf, 1988 killing all 290 people aboard. 66 children were also killed in the US attack. There were 38 non-Iranians aboard. The US Vessel was 4 kilometers inside the borders of Iran when it hit the plane with a missile killing all 274 passengers and 16 crew members. The men of the US naval vessel Vincennes which attacked the Iranian Passenger Air Plane, were all awarded combat-action ribbons. Lustig, the air-warfare co-ordinator, won the navy's Commendation Medal for "heroic achievement," noting his "ability to maintain his poise and confidence under fire" that enabled him to "quickly and precisely complete the firing procedure." The Legion of Merit was presented to Rogers(who fired the missile on the passenger airplane) and Lustig on 3 July 1988, according to a 23 April 1990 article in The Washington Post. The citations did not mention the Iran Air flight. It should be noted that the Legion of Merit is often awarded to high-ranking officers upon successful completion of especially difficult duty assignments and/or last tours of duty before retirement. The civilian jet was hit by two SM-2MR Surface-to-air missiles. The first missile broke the aircraft in two and damaged the tailplane and right wing. Three years after the incident, Admiral William J. Crowe admitted on American television show Nightline that the Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters when it launched the missiles. This contradicted earlier Navy claims. The U.S. government issued notes of regret for the loss of human life but never admitted wrongdoing, accepted responsibility, nor apologised for the incident. Officially, the bloody US government continues to blame Iranian hostile actions for the incident. According to the Iranian government, the shooting down of IR 655 by the Vincennes was an intentionally performed and unlawful act. Even if there was a mistaken identification, which Iran does not accept, this amounted to such gross negligence and recklessness that it still amounted to an international crime, not an accident. In April 1988, the US Navy carried out Operation Praying Mantis against Iran and directly attacked Iranian Naval vessels and installations and Iranian off-shore oil facilities. In effect, Iran and the USA were in outright military conflict. Iran thus regarded the USA as being an open military ally of Saddam Hussein's Iraq and feared that the US would expand its naval war with Iran into attacks on Iran's soil. The Iranian government believed at the time of the incident that the attack was intended as a warning to Iran that if it did not agree to some form of armistice with Iraq, the USA would itself directly attack the Iranian mainland and Iranian civilians in order to assist Iraq. |
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