TEHRAN - Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday expressed deep condolences to the bereaved families of the victims of the Ukrainian passenger plane, urging the Armed Forces General Staff to launch investigations into the downing of the plane that was caused by a human error on Wednesday morning.

Ayatollah Khamenei ordered the Armed Forces General Staff to probe possible failures and shortcoming that led to such a “painful” incident.

The Leader asked relevant officials to devise a mechanism to prevent such incidents in the future.

The incident happened a few hours after Iran fired dozens of ballistic missiles at a U.S. airbase inside Iraq in retaliation for the assassination of top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif expressed apologies and condolences to all who have been affected by the tragic plane crash, saying that “U.S. adventurism” has led to this disaster.

“Preliminary conclusions of internal investigation by Armed Forces: Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster,” Zarif tweeted on Saturday.

On Saturday morning, the Armed Forces General Staff released a statement noting that human error in an air defense mistakenly targeted the Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport. 176 people on board lost their lives.

MJ/PA