Iran claims foul play in plane crashes

Iran has said it had information that the United States, Britain and Israel had a role in two deadly military plane crashes in the last two months.

A military plane crashed into a building in Tehran last December

It was the latest accusation by Tehran against the West in their sharpening confrontation.

A day earlier, Iran blamed the United States and Britain for two bombings that killed at least nine people in the southwestern city of Ahvaz.

Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi told reporters on the sidelines of a police seminar that “the information we have says that the US, Britain and Israel’s intelligence agents intended to create insecurity in Iran”.

“Even my evaluation says that the crash of our C-130 and Falcon planes was done by their design, or maybe electronic interference.”

Pourmohammadi did not elaborate and did not give any evidence.

In early January, an Iranian military flight carrying a commander of the country’s elite Revolutionary Guards and 10 others crashed while trying to make an emergency landing, killing all aboard.

On 6 December 2005, a military transport plane crashed into a 10-storey building near Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, killing 115 people.

The plane, a US-made C-130, had suffered engine trouble and the pilot was returning to the airport when the aircraft suddenly lost altitude and slammed into the apartment building.

Most of the passengers were Iranian journalists.