An India-bound aircraft from Iranian Mahan Air was hit in an American attack on the Mashhad International Airport, with Tehran calling the airstrikes on the humanitarian mission plane a “war crime”.
According to Iran, the aircraft was stationed at the airport and was scheduled to fly to India to carry humanitarian aid and supplies, including medicines, to Iran.
The aircraft was hit in the US airstrikes, Iran said, but Washington has not yet confirmed the attack. “Mahan Air aircraft was hit by the US in an airstrike at Mashhad Airport. The plane was scheduled to fly to Delhi for humanitarian aid,” unnamed Iranian officials were quoted as saying by media reports.
Iran has been coordinating humanitarian aid and supplies from India, and earlier this month, New Delhi had airlifted a consignment to Iran, as part of the long-standing civilisational and humanitarian ties between the two nations.
Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation, in a strongly worded condemnation of the attack on the aid aircraft, called the US attack “a war crime” and “a clear violation” of international laws.
Iran’s embassy in New Delhi posted on X that the aircraft was carrying medicines and other healthcare equipment from multiple nations and was engaged in humanitarian missions.
The post said targeting of an aid-carrying aircraft belonging to civilian airlines ran contrary to the principles of humanitarian laws. Referring to the Chicago Convention of 1944 and the Montreal Convention of 1971, the Iranian civil aviation body said the US attack on the aid aircraft was an international criminal offence.
The body invoked Article 52 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, under which attacks on civilian objects, including aircraft carrying humanitarian aid, may amount to war crimes.
The Civil Aviation Organisation called on international bodies to urgently investigate the incident, prosecute those responsible, and ensure safeguards to prevent similar threats to civil aviation.
Mahan Air is one of Iran’s largest private carriers. It has been under US sanctions for years. Washington has alleged that Mahan Air had links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), accusing it of transporting military personnel and equipment linked to regional conflicts, a claim Tehran has consistently denied.