Canada and Britain's leaders said Thursday that they have intelligence a Ukrainian airliner was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.
"This may have been unintentional," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a press conference in Ottawa.
"There is now a body of information that the flight was shot down by an Iranian Surface to Air Missile. This may well have been unintentional. We are working closely with Canada and our international partners and there now needs to be a full, transparent investigation," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement.
"The UK continues to call on all sides urgently to deescalate to reduce tensions in the region," the statement added.
Trudeau has called for a thorough investigation into what caused the crash but would not provide additional details about the evidence and intelligence he cited.
CNN reported earlier Thursday that the US increasingly believes Iran mistakenly shot down the airliner, according to multiple US officials. The working theory is based on continuing analysis of data from satellites, radar and electronic data collected routinely by US military and intelligence.
A US official familiar with the intelligence said the plane was shot down by two Russian made SA-15 surface to air missiles. The US saw Iranian radar signals lock onto the jetliner, before it was shot down.
The morning after the incident, US analysts discovered the data but took another day to verify, the official said.
Video sent to CNN appears to show a missile fired into the Tehran sky early Wednesday morning and striking an object in the sky. Around that time, the Ukranian airliner crashed shortly after takeoff.
CNN cannot verify the authenticity of the video, but the buildings seen in it appears similar to ones that are in the Iranian capitol suburb of Parand. The Ukrainian plane crashed just north of the suburb.
The video sent to CNN and the New York Times, shows a light in the sky, moving left to right and then exploding.
CNN has asked for more information from the individual who sent the video and how they obtained it, but has not yet received a response.
President Donald Trump on Thursday said he suspected the crash was not due to mechanical issues, indicating that "somebody could have made a mistake on the other side."
Asked during a White House event what he thought happened to the plane, Trump said, "Well, I have my suspicions."
European security officials told CNN they believe reports suggesting that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface to air missile in error are credible.
The timing of the crash has fueled speculation about its cause, coming just hours after Iran fired missiles at two Iraqi bases housing US troops in retaliation for the killing of its top general, also in Iraq. The exchange of attacks between Tehran and Washington on Iraqi soil was a dramatic escalation of tensions between the adversaries, and is raising fears of another proxy war in the Middle East.
The head of Iran's Civil Aviation Authority is questioning the US allegation.
Speaking to CNN, Ali Abedzadeh said, "if a rocket or missile hits a plane, it will free fall."
Abedzadeh asked, "How can a plane be hit by rocket or missile" and then the pilot "try to turn back to the airport?"
He also told CNN the plane's black boxes are damaged and Iran may need help decoding them.
"Generally speaking, Iran has the potential and know-how to decode the black box. Everybody knows that," Abedzadeh said.
However, he also added that, "the black box of this very Ukrainian Boeing 737 is damaged. Ukrainian Aviation experts arrived here in Tehran today. We had a session with them. From tomorrow they will start decoding the data."
"If the available equipment is not enough to get the content" Iran will outsource the boxes to "the experts from France or Canada," Abedzadeh said.
Newsweek was first to report US and Iraqi sources believe Iran shot down the plane by mistake.
"I don't want to say that because other people have their suspicions," Trump said, but added, "Somebody could have made a mistake on the other side ... not our system. It has nothing to do with us."
"It was flying in a pretty rough neighborhood. They could've made a mistake. Some people say it was mechanical. I personally don't think that's even a question."
Asked if he thought it was downed by accident, Trump said, "I don't know. I really don't know ... that's up to them. At some point they'll release the black box."
"Ideally they'd give it to Boeing," he said, but said giving it to France or "some other country" would be fine, too.
"Something very terrible happened, very devastating," he concluded.
Copyright Infringement intended, Credit to CNN.
