In an address broadcast by state TV on Saturday, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh says that when he learned about the downing of the plane, which killed all 176 passengers on board, “I wished I were dead.” Iran's armed forces say they mistook the passenger plane for a hostile target in the tense aftermath of Iran's ballistic missile attack on two military bases in Iraq housing US troops.

That attack was retaliation for the killing of Iran's top general, Qassem Soleimani, in an American airstrike in Baghdad.