BANDAR ABBAS - Iran on Wednesday commemorated the 14th anniversary of the shooting down of an Iranian Airbus passenger plane over the southern Persian Gulf by a U.S. Navy cruiser killing all 290 people aboard.

A ceremony was held at the site of the tragedy off the port city of Bandar Abbas, during which the victims' families threw flowers into the water for the 160 men, 73 women, and 57 children killed aboard the Iran Air A-300.

The plane was en route to Dubai when it was shot down by the USS Vincennes on July 3, 1988, just a month before the end of the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq.

Washington said the ship's crew mistook the airliner for an attacking Iranian fighter plane and has paid tens of millions of dollars in compensation to the victims' families, but Tehran insisted the attack was deliberate, AFP reported.