TEHRAN - On the 22nd anniversary of the downing of Iran Air Flight 655 by the U.S. battleship Vincennes, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the incident a declaration of war on humanity.

“The heartrending tragedy was in fact a declaration of war on humanity and a mark of lasting disgrace and shame for the organizations claiming to be advocates of human rights and the campaign against terrorism,” Ahmadinejad said in a statement which was read out at a ceremony commemorating the victims of the tragic event held near the site of the incident in the Persian Gulf on Saturday.
The families of the people killed in the heartrending incident and other Iranians gather every year in the Persian Gulf near the site of the incident to remember the victims by throwing flowers into the waters of the Persian Gulf.
Ahmadinejad described the U.S. missile attack on the Iranian passenger airliner as a “black stain on the ignominious record of American liberal democracy.”
The U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf on July 3, 1988, killing all 290 passengers and crew members, including 66 children.
The U.S. government refused to apologize for the incident, which was the seventh deadliest plane crash in aviation history, claiming that the crew had mistaken the Iranian Airbus A300 for an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter.
“On the 22nd anniversary of this unforgettable tragedy, we commemorate the memory and martyrdom of 290 innocent people and call on conscientious people across the world to once again sit” and reflect upon this tragedy, the president added.