US Attack on Iranian Plane Was Not a ‘Mistake,’ But a Calculated War Crime

On this day 37 years ago, on the 12th day of Persian year 1367 (July 3, 1988), a horrific air attack took place in Iranian airspace that remains etched in history. The US warship USS Vincennes, stationed in the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, fired two missiles targeting Iran Air Flight 655, a passenger plane. The plane had departed from Iran’s Bandar Abbas bound for Dubai, a commercial route only about 30 minutes away.