No, they shot it down because it was in the middle of their attack against US bases in Iraq and they were expecting the US to retaliate immediately by air. Their poorly trained, poorly equipped air defense personnel either managed to mistake it as an American warplane (pretty unbelievable considering they'd have their top people and systems defending their capital), or they shot it down on purpose, possibly to blame on the US following some American retaliation, which would gain them some much needed sympathy. Frankly I think they planned this from the start, and that's why they only fired a few inaccurate ballistic missiles, because they thought that would trigger a big retaliation and they could make the US look like it was over-reacting. At this point, if it was an accident, it doesn't matter because of how they're covering it up.
No, they shot it down because it was in the middle of their attack against US bases in Iraq and they were expecting the US to retaliate immediately by air. Their poorly trained, poorly equipped air defense personnel either managed to mistake it as an American warplane (pretty unbelievable considering they'd have their top people and systems defending their capital), or they shot it down on purpose, possibly to blame on the US following some American retaliation, which would gain them some much needed sympathy. Frankly I think they planned this from the start, and that's why they only fired a few inaccurate ballistic missiles, because they thought that would trigger a big retaliation and they could make the US look like it was over-reacting. At this point, if it was an accident, it doesn't matter because of how they're covering it up.
Clever of them to leave civilian airports running during a missile strike.
I mean that's big-league genius shit right there.
Indeed. Shutting them down would telegraph their attack. They already were telegraphing it to an extent, but that would be obvious.