UPDATE 1-Iran's Guards knew missile to blame on day Ukraine plane crashed

(Adds quotes from senior Guards commander)
DUBAI, Jan 11 (Reuters) - A senior Iranian Revolutionary
Guards commander said on Saturday he knew a missile had brought
down a Ukrainian plane the same day it happened and accepted
full responsibility, saying his force had acted in error while
on alert for "all-out war".
Iran had for days denied a missile hit the Boeing 737-800 on
Wednesday shortly after taking off from Tehran, sending it
crashing to the ground and killing all 176 people aboard.
"I wish I could die and not witness such an accident,"
the head of the Guards' aerospace division, Amirali Hajizadeh,
said on state television.
The aircraft came down after Iran had launched missile
strikes on U.S. targets in Iraq in retaliation for the killing
in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq of Qassem Soleimani, commander of
the Guards' Quds Force. Iran had expected U.S. reprisals.
"That night we had the readiness for all-out war," Hajizadeh
said, adding air defence units were on the highest alert and an
extra ring of defences had been set up around Tehran.
The commander said the Guards had requested commercial
flights be halted but he said the requests were not acted upon.
He said also said he had been informed about the missile
strike on the Ukrainian passenger plane on Wednesday.
"I informed the authorities. They had to examine and check
the accident and from there it went to (military superiors) who
worked really fast and within 48 hours these checks were done,"
he said.
As recently as Friday, Iranian officials had rigorously
denied accusations by Canada, the United States and others that
Iran shot the plane down albeit by mistake. One Iranian official
had said such an explanation was "scientifically" impossible.
The Guards commander defended those Iranian officials, saying
they were only commenting based on information they were given.
Hajizadeh said the air defence operator involved had 10
seconds to decide whether to shoot or not. "In this situation,
unfortunately, he made this bad decision," he said.
He also said the operator should have secured approval from
a supervisor to launch his weapon but his means of communication
was down, Hajizadeh said.
Iran has said those responsible for the accident would be
held to account.