Pompeo on Flight 752: World will ‘take appropriate actions’ after investigation

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the U.S. will await the results of an investigation into what happened to Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 before taking the “appropriate actions” in response.

Pompeo tells a news conference in Washington that the U.S. believes it is likely the aircraft, which was carrying at least 63 Canadian citizens, was hit by an Iranian missile.

It’s the first time a senior U.S. official has publicly acknowledged what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday: that intelligence points to a missile strike from Iran as the cause of the tragedy.

The plan crashed early Wednesday shortly after takeoff from Tehran and just hours after two military bases in Iraq where U.S. soldiers were stationed were hit by a barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles.

Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin were detailing the additional sanctions President Donald Trump promised earlier this week against the Iranian regime in response to the attack in Iraq, which was spurred by the U.S. decision to target Iran’s top military leader, Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Pompeo also made it clear that the U.S. acted against Soleimani to prevent what he called an “imminent attack” against U.S. facilities, including the American embassy in Baghdad.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 10, 2020.

— Follow James McCarten on Twitter @CdnPressStyle

The Canadian Press