Is This War?
You’ve probably seen World War 3 memes on Instagram, heard friends and family talking about the conflict in Iran, or seen something on TV. If you’re struggling to understand what’s happening, though, this timeline will explain all of the events and successions in chronological order.
January 2, 2020: The US killed Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, via drone strike while he disembarked from an airplane at Baghdad airport.
January 8, 2020: In an act of retaliation for General Soleimani’s killing, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard launched rocket attacks on Iraqi bases housing US forces. Recent reports show that 11 service members are being treated for concussion symptoms, despite earlier remarks by President Trump, who stated that “no Americans were harmed”. There were no reported casualties.
January 8, 2020: At around 6:15 AM, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752- a Boeing 737 Next-Gen airliner- was shot down by two separate missiles shortly after takeoff, each fired 30 seconds apart. The flight was departing from Tehran International Airport, and all 176 passengers and crew were killed in the incident.An initial report from Iran’s civil aviation program states that the plane had an unspecified technical problem, causing it to crash. That same day, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called for a full investigation via a Facebook post.
January 9, 2020: The United States and allied officials along with Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, said that their intelligence showed the Ukranian airliner being shot down by an Iranian missile.
January 10, 2020: Ali Abedzadeh, the head of Iran’s civil aviation organization, said he was certain no missiles hit the aircraft. Government spokesman Ali Rabiei mentioned he thought the US was making everything harder and painful for the families of the victims by claiming that the airliner was brought down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.
January 11, 2020: Hassan Rouhani, the president of Iran, said that Iran’s armed forces had regrettably found that the missiles were fired due to human error, consequently bringing down the Ukrainian airliner. Amirali Hajizadeh, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander, accepted full responsibility for the crash and the human error involved.
January 12, 2020: Thousands gathered in Tehran, Iran’s capital city, to protest the government’s coverup of the crash and demanding that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei resign, even going as far as chanting “Death to liars!” and “Death to the dictator!”.
This is still an ongoing issue. Events mentioned only cover the beginning.