TEHRAN, Iran (UPDATED) – In what could be a stone-hearted kind of admission of a grave mistake that claimed the lives of around 200 airline passengers, Iran’s armed forces said Saturday (January 11) it “unintentionally” shot down the Ukrainian airliner that crashed in pieces this week.

It was plain “human error” that caused the Ukrainian plane to crash last Wednesday in which all 176 people aboard was killed it said.

In their mad scramble at launching a massive retaliation on the killing of revered General Qassem Soleimani through a drone attack by the US in Baghdad, the Iranian military said it “mistakenly” hit the Ukrainian plane as “hostile plane.”

United on the killing of Soleimani who serves as the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Iran is now accordingly divided after its military owned up the catastrophic “mistake” hitting the Ukranian plane that mostly carried Canadian citizens.

Shooting by Iran of the “hostile plane” happened “while enemy threats were at the highest level, according to a press statement published by the official IRNA news agency.”

Meanwhile, Canada downgraded the number of its citizens killed in the “accidental shooting” from 63 to 57 following a thorough check on birth dates and travel documents” Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said.

It may be recalled that Iran’s civil aviation chief earlier denied their missile downed the plane saying Iran’s air defenses can never make a catastrophic mistake in determining between a commercial plane and a military one.

Meantime, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif still blamed the US saying “human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster” on his Twitter account.

“Our profound regrets, apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims, and to other affected nations,” Zarif added.

And just like that. (JGo/Online/CurrentPH.com)