Iranian President Rouhani said the military should apologize after the accidental shooting of a Ukrainian plane that killed 176 people and called for national solidarity.

"The people want to ensure that the government treats them with sincerity, integrity and trust," Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told a cabinet meeting in Tehran today and requested the armed forces This country page "apologizes" and explains what happened during the tragedy of mistakenly shooting the plane.

A unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRCG) on January 8 launched a missile that mistakenly fired the PS752 aircraft of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) on the outskirts of Tehran on January 8. All 167 passengers and 9 crew members on board were killed.

The tragedy occurred about three hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile against two US bases in Iraq to take revenge on the US airstrike to kill General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds task force of IRCG, on January 3. Protests have been taking place in Iran in recent days to protest the government over this tragic incident.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said yesterday the accidental shooting was "an unforgivable mistake" and that those responsible would be punished. He also called for the establishment of a special court to investigate the tragedy. Iran has arrested a number of suspects and the person who sent the video of the plane hit a rocket to American media.