Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Iran Marks Anniversary of Airliner Downing

   VOA News 03 July 2010
   An  Iranian  woman  scatters flower into the Persian Gulf, 3 Jul 2010,
   during  a  ceremony  remembering  the  290 passengers killed when a US
   warship shot down an Iranian airliner 22 years ago

Photo: AP

   An  Iranian  woman  scatters flower into the Persian Gulf, 3 Jul 2010,
   during  a  ceremony  remembering  the  290 passengers killed when a US
   warship shot down an Iranian airliner 22 years ago

   Iranians  have  marked  the 22nd anniversary of the U.S. downing of an
   Iranian  passenger  jet  with  a  ceremony at the site where the plane
   crashed.
   Family  members  of  the  290 people killed in the incident were among
   those  who  gathered  in Persian Gulf waters Saturday, where they laid
   flowers in memory of Flight 655 victims.
   The  Iranian  Students  News Agency says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
   delivered  a  message  in which he said the "tragic human catastrophe"
   was "not an understandable incident."
   The  USS  Vincennes  shot  down  the  passenger plane on July 3, 1988,
   shortly  after  it  took off from the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas for
   Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
   The  U.S.  said  it mistook the airliner for a hostile Iranian fighter
   jet.
   The  U.S.  paid  Iran  more  than $100 million in compensation for the
   incident as part of a 1996 settlement.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

.