World

Iran Set to Announce Cause of Plane Crash, Denies Missile Attack

Published

6 years ago

January 11, 2020

Eric

Iran’s civil aviation chief denied Friday that a missile downed a Ukrainian airliner which crashed killing all 176 people on board, rejecting Western claims of a catastrophic mistake by Tehran’s air defences.

The cause of the crash is to be announced Saturday after an investigating committee meeting in the presence of foreign and local parties involved, Iran’s Fars news agency said, quoting an “informed source”.

The report came as Ukraine said its experts had been granted access to the black box flight recorders and as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeated it was “likely” an Iranian missile had downed the plane.

Tehran has been facing mounting international pressure to allow a “credible” investigation into the crash, which several Western governments have blamed on an accidental missile strike.

“One thing is for certain, this airplane was not hit by a missile,” Iran’s civil aviation chief Ali Abedzadeh said, after Tehran invited the US, Ukraine, Canada and others to join the investigation.

The Boeing 737 crashed on Wednesday shortly after Iran launched missiles at US forces in Iraq in response to the killing of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad.

It was Iran’s worst civil aviation disaster since 1988 when the US military said it shot down an Iran Air plane over the Gulf by mistake, killing all 290 people on board.

The majority of passengers on Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Flight PS752 were dual national Iranian-Canadians but also included Ukrainians, Afghans, Britons and Swedes.

Vadym Prystaiko, the foreign minister of Ukraine which has sent around 50 experts to Tehran to take part in the Iran-led inquiry, said Friday: “Our team has now access to the black boxes”.

The experts, he said, also had access to the radio exchanges between the UIA pilots and Tehran air traffic control and were receiving “full cooperation” from Iran.

The Ukraine team, granted access to plane fragments and the crash site, will start analysing the contents of the black boxes, he added.

Pompeo, echoing several world leaders, said “we do believe it’s likely the plane was shot down by an Iranian missile”, adding a final determination would be made after a probe is conducted.

Canada demands answers

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said intelligence sources indicated an Iranian surface-to-air missile downed the aircraft after it took off from Tehran.

“We know this may have been unintentional. Canadians have questions, and they deserve answers,” he said.

Abedzadeh rejected the claim. “Any remarks made before the data is extracted (from the plane’s black box flight recorders) … is not an expert opinion,” he said.”

Video footage, which The New York Times said it had verified, emerged and appeared to show the moment the airliner was hit.

A fast-moving object is seen rising at an angle into the sky before a bright flash appears, which dims and then continues moving forward. Several seconds later, an explosion is heard and the sky lit up.

Iran said a 10-member Canadian delegation was on its way to help with the probe, although the two countries cut diplomatic relations in 2012.

The Islamic republic also invited US plane maker Boeing to “participate” in the investigation.

Canada and the US National Transportation Safety Board said they received the invitations and would join the probe.

Abedzadeh said Tehran had invited “Americans, Canadians, the French, Ukrainians and the Swedish” to be present during the investigation.

European Union foreign ministers on Friday urged Iran to be transparent.

“The important thing now is that everything is completely investigated. Nothing must be swept under the table,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.

US President Donald Trump has indicated that Washington officials believed the Kiev-bound Boeing 737 was struck by an Iranian missile.

Africa

Mahama Recalls High Commissioner to Nigeria over Election Rigging Allegations

Published

13 hours ago

February 8, 2026

Eric

President John Mahama of Ghana has ordered the immediate recall of Mohammed Ahmed, known as Baba Jamal, from his position as the country’s high commissioner to Nigeria over allegations of vote buying in Saturday’s parliamentary primaries.

Mahama’s decision was in response to claims that delegates were induced during the National Democratic Congress (NDC) primaries.

Jamal was a candidate in the polls, which he later won.

During the election, Jamal’s campaign team offered 32-inch televisions and boiled eggs to delegates who took part in the primaries.

Jamal confirmed that television sets had been distributed but rejected claims that the act amounted to vote buying.

“So if you give television sets to people, what is wrong with it when you give things to people?” he asked, according to local media JoyOnline.

“Is this the first time I am giving things to people?”

Explaining the reason behind Jamal’s recall, Felix Ofosu, Mahama’s spokesperson, said that while the allegations of vote buying were made against multiple candidates who contested the primaries, Jamal was the only serving public officer among them.

“The President has also noted the public statement by the General Secretary of the NDC indicating that the Party has commenced its own investigations into the allegations arising from the primaries,” the statement reads.

“Without prejudice to the ongoing internal party processes, and strictly in view of the standards of conduct expected of public officers, the President considers it necessary to act decisively to preserve the integrity of public office and to avoid any perception of impropriety or conflict with the Government’s Code of Conduct for Political Appointees.”

Ofosu said the high commissioner’s recall takes effect immediately, and that directives had been issued to the minister for foreign affairs to take the necessary administrative steps.

Africa

Muammar Gaddafi’s Son Saif al-Islam Assassinated

Published

5 days ago

February 4, 2026

Eric

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has died at the age of 53, his political team announced on Tuesday.

The Head of the political team told Libyan News Agency that the young Gaddafi died near the country’s border with Algeria.

His sister confirmed the development, but did not specify the cause of death.

Born in 1972, the younger Gaddafi was once widely seen as his father’s heir apparent. The International Criminal Court had issued a warrant for his arrest, seeking to prosecute him for crimes against humanity related to his alleged role in crushing opposition demonstrations in 2011.

USA

US Group Appeals to Trump to Help Halt Christian Genocide in Nigeria

Published

2 weeks ago

January 24, 2026

Eric

A strong and passionate appeal has been made to US President, Donald Trump, and the international community, to take immediate and conclusive actions, in collaboration with the Nigerian government, to halt the upsurge of genocidal killings and maiming, being carried out by extreme Islamist terrorists and other insurgents, in the country, particularly its northern region.

The ‘Save Our Souls’ (SOS) message was contained in a statement from the Save Nigeria Group (SNGUSA), a civil society body based in the USA, endorsed by Stephen Osemwegie and Victor O. Ben, its President/Founder and respectively.

The statement was against the backdrop of renewed killings and kidnapping by the armed militants in the northern Nigeria’s Middle Belt, including on Sunday, January 18, 2026, where innocent Christians were attacked in Kajulu, Kaduna State, resulting in the abduction of over 177 worshippers, during Sunday worships.

While expressing the group’s profound gratitude to President Trump, for his pivotal leadership and empowering the 2025 Christmas Day’s fatal airstrikes against the ISIS and Lakurawa camps in Sokoto, which it said was a powerful message to terrorists and that it brought hope to persecuted communities across Nigeria, the statement asserted that the recent brutal attacks in Kaduna and others indicated that the job was not finished.

(SNGUSA), the US-based not-for-profit, which collaborates in its activities with the Save Nigeria Initiated (SNI), a coalition based in Nigeria, also called on religious groups, traditional rulers and the civil society leaders to synergise, in order to halt the massacres and insecurity, and prevail on the United Nations’ Secretary General and others global bodies, to urgently intervene in Nigeria’s worsening insecurity and humanitarian crisis.

The massive kidnap of Christian worshippers in Kajulu, Kaduna, which was initially denied by the Nigerian police, but later confirmed by it, had been condemned across the world, hence the appeal by SNGUSA.