Iran’s civil aviation authority said Tuesday the country’s military fired two missiles at a Ukrainian commercial jet that went down shortly after taking off from Tehran earlier this month, killing all 176 people on board.A Civil Aviation Organization report identified the missiles as being the TOR-M1 model, a type of Russian-made, surface-to-air missile.It also said it has requested technical assistance from the U.S. Transportation Safety Board and its French counterpart BEA to help read the black box flight data recorders recovered from the crash site.Iran says so far the United States and France have not responded positively to a request to provide the equipment necessary to carry out the work.Iran initially said mechanical problems caused the commercial jetliner to go down, before admitting days later that Iranian military personnel shot down the plane. The revelation sparked days of protests in Iran as people expressed their anger at the country’s leaders.The downing of the plane happened hours after Iran fired missiles at U.S. forces in Iraq and was bracing for a U.S. counterstrike that never came. Iran’s missile attacks were in retaliation for what the United States called a self-defensive strike that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad on Jan. 3.
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