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More Conflicting Reports From Iranian Dailies On Plane Forced Down In Iran
According to the Iranian daily Kayhan today (October 8 Iran time), the plane forced to land in Iran by Iranian airplanes was an American jet, with U.S. military personnel on board. The newspaper also cited an October 7 report by the Al-‘Alam news network that quoted a senior Iranian armed forces officer as saying that the plane was not American but that five American generals were on board.
However, the Iranian daily Jomhouri-e Eslami confirmed today (October 8 Iran time) that the plane was a foreign airplane, but not American. It quoted the same military source as denying that the plane was American or that American passengers were aboard. Jomhouri-e Eslami went on to state that the incident occurred last week, on September 29. It said that the plane had first identified itself as military, and thus it was not permitted to enter Iranian airspace. However, two hours later it identified itself as civilian. The plane's passengers were non-American military personnel, and since after interrogation they were found to have no ill intentions, Iranian authorities permitted them to leave the country.
The news agency Mehr reported late October 7, quoting the military source as saying that the plane was not American but from a “third country,” and that the authorities had seen that the passengers had no ill intentions and let them go.
Earlier, two Iranian websites had reported that a U.S. Falcon plane had been intercepted, but did not note when the incident had taken place.
However, the Iranian news agency Mehr had reported that sources said that the plane did not belong to the U.S. but that several U.S. security personnel were on board. Mehr added that the plane was forced to land in Iran two days ago, on October 5, and that yesterday, October 6, it was permitted to fly to Afghanistan.
The Iranian news agency Fars had reported that Iranian fighter planes had intercepted an American Falcon plane that disregarded Iranian warnings and penetrated Iranian airspace from the direction of Turkey, forcing it to land at an Iranian airport after it tried to continue flying low on its path to evade Iranian radar.
Also, the Jahanews website had reported on the incident, and stated that the plane had been forced to land at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran.
According to the Fars and Jahanews reports, five security personnel and three civilians on the plane were interrogated at the airport, and the next day were released, with their plane, to Afghanistan after it turned out that they had entered Iranian airspace by mistake and that their destination was Afghanistan.
Sources: Jomhouri-e Eslami, Kayhan, Iran, October 8, 2008; Al-'Alam, Fars, Jahanews, Mehr, Iran, October 7, 2008
Posted at: 2008-10-07
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