{"id":40489,"date":"2020-01-10T15:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T15:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/01\/10\/a-crashs-grim-echoes-of-iran-air-flight-655\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:43:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:43:42","slug":"a-crashs-grim-echoes-of-iran-air-flight-655","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2020\/01\/10\/a-crashs-grim-echoes-of-iran-air-flight-655\/","title":{"rendered":"A crash\u2019s grim echoes of Iran Air flight 655"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates \u2014 The Western allegation that Iran shot down a Ukrainian jetliner and killed 176 people offers a grim echo for the Islamic Republic, which found itself the victim of an accidental shootdown by American forces over 30 years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The July 3, 1988 downing of Iran Air flight 655 <\/a>by the U.S. Navy remains one of the moments the Iranian government points to in its decades-long distrust of America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They rank it alongside the 1953 CIA-backed coup that toppled its elected prime minister and secured Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi\u2019s absolute power until he abdicated the throne before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As recently as last week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani referenced the attack in criticizing President Donald Trump’s comments that U.S. forces had picked out 52 targets to be attacked in Iran if needed, one for each of the American hostages held after the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Those who refer to the number 52 should also remember the number 290. #IR655,” Rouhani wrote on Twitter. “Never threaten the Iranian nation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On July 7, 1988, mourners carried coffins through the streets of Tehran during a mass funeral for the victims from Iran Air Flight 655, which was shot down by the guided-missile cruiser Vincennes in the Persian Gulf. (AP Photo\/Canadian Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The attack on the Iran Air flight followed what the U.S. Navy refers to as Operation Praying Mantis<\/a>, a daylong naval battle in the Persian Gulf between American forces and Iran during the country\u2019s long 1980s war with Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That battle came after the guided-missile frigate Samuel B. Roberts <\/a>struck a mine that the Americans later accused Iran of laying in the shipping channels it was trying to keep open for Kuwaiti oil tankers amid the so-called \u201cTanker War<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the battle, U.S. forces continued to patrol shipping channels while Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard often harassed or swarmed incoming ships with smaller vessels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a tactic used even today in the narrows of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, through which 20 percent of the world\u2019s oil passes.<\/p>\n\n\n\t