By Live 5 Web Staff| January 9, 2020 at 12:03 PM EST – Updated January 9 at 12:06 PM
TEHRAN, Iran (CBS) – U.S. officials are confident Iran shot down a Ukrainian jetliner in the hours after the Iranian missile attack on U.S. targets earlier this week, CBS News has learned.
US intelligence picked up signals of the radar being turned on and satellite detected infrared blips of two missile launches, probably SA-15s, followed shortly by another infrared blip of an explosion, according to CBS reporter Kris Van Cleave.
Officials believe the plane was mistakenly targeted.
The Boeing 737-800 crashed just hours after Iran launched a barrage of missiles at U.S. forces but while the timing of the disaster led to questions by some aviation experts, Iranian officials blamed mechanical trouble.
Wednesday’s crash killed all 176 people on board the Ukrainian jetliner, many of them from Iran and also Canada, but also of other nationalities.
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