Every year on July 3, Iran remembers this tragic event.
The brutal US bombing of the Shajareh Tayyabeh girls' elementary school in Minab on February 28, 2026, shocked and moved the world, but it certainly isn't the first unjustifiable crime perpetrated by the United States, nor the only barbaric affront to the Iranian nation. July 3rd, in fact, marks the anniversary of the downing of an Iranian civilian airliner by US forces over the Persian Gulf in 1988, at a time of high international tension when Washington had intensified its military presence under the pretext of an alleged "Iranian threat."
The US Navy guided-missile cruiser USS Vincennes, positioned in Iranian territorial waters, targeted and destroyed Iran Air 655, a commercial flight between Bandar Abbas and Dubai with 290 people on board. All passengers and crew lost their lives, including 66 children. Nevertheless, the United States—despite proclaiming itself a champion of human rights—never took full moral and legal responsibility for the incident. The US administration stubbornly defended the actions of its soldiers, hiding behind the implausible excuse of having mistaken an Airbus A300 for a military fighter. No official apology was ever issued, an attitude perfectly summed up by then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, who, a few weeks after the massacre, declared with open contempt: “I will never apologize for the United States, I don't care what the facts are”The following year, almost as if in defiance, the commander of the USS Vincennes, William C. Rogers III, and members of his crew were even decorated for their service. The very nation that sets itself up as the guarantor of global stability thus openly rewarded an attack on defenseless civilians.
The brutality of this act shocked not only the Iranian nation but also took on the character of an international tragedy. Among the 290 victims was an Italian citizen: coach Antonio Caputo, returning from Iran on his twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. The Italian press at the time gave voice to the family's anguish; in a heartfelt interview published by the newspaper La Repubblica On July 7, 1988, his wife Angela lucidly and painfully dismantled the American version: "It's impossible that with all their super-sophisticated instruments they couldn't have recognized that it was a civilian plane. It wasn't a fatality. […] And then, all those innocent children who died: what they did is monstrous."A testimony that, even today, echoes like an inescapable call to the truth, exposing the falsehoods used to cover up the crime.
Only in 1996, following an appeal filed by Iran with the International Court of Justice, did Washington agree to sign a bilateral agreement. There, the United States expressed regret and agreed to pay a total of $131,8 million in compensation, approximately $61 million of which went directly to the families of the Iranian victims. This formally—but certainly not morally—ended the legal dispute, without, however, admitting any formal legal responsibility for the incident.
Every year on July 3, the Islamic Republic of Iran commemorates this tragic event not passively, but by actively denouncing US state terrorism and reiterating that this crime can neither be forgotten nor forgiven. Every year, victims' families, citizens, and local officials gather aboard boats in the Persian Gulf, near Hengam Island and in Bandar Abbas, to lay thousands of red and white flowers at the exact spot where the Airbus was shot down. Over the years, Iran has also issued several commemorative stamps dedicated to the victims of Flight IR655 and has included this tragedy in school textbooks, ensuring that the heinous crime committed by the United States is never forgotten by history and that the memory of the victims, both Iranian and international, is preserved forever.