Iran’s leaders are facing a second day of protests following their admission the military shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 people on board, many of them Iranians.
Demonstrators gathered at universities in Tehran and at sites in other cities, calling for senior officials to go.
Riot police have been sent to Tehran’s Azadi Square and other landmarks.
Iran admitted “unintentionally” hitting the plane after initially denying it amid rising tensions with the US.
The plane, en route to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was shot down near Tehran last Wednesday, shortly after Iran had launched missiles at two airbases housing US forces in Iraq.
Those strikes were a response to the US killing of senior Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad on 3 January.
President Donald Trump had ordered the strike saying Soleimani was preparing attacks against four US embassies.
But his Defence Secretary Mark Esper told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday that he “didn’t see” that specific evidence – even though he shared the president’s belief that there “probably and could’ve been attacks on additional embassies”.
Dozens of Iranians and Canadians, as well as nationals from Ukraine, the UK, Afghanistan and Sweden died on the plane.
Demonstrators attended new protests despite a large deployment of security forces.
Riot police, members of the elite Revolutionary Guard on motorbikes, and plainclothes security officials were out in force.
In one apparently symbolic act rejecting state propaganda, video showed students taking care not to walk over US and Israeli flags painted on the ground at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.
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In some social media clips, protesters can be heard chanting anti-government slogans, including: “They are lying that our enemy is America, our enemy is right here.”
Unverified social media footage showed clapping and chanting protesters in Tehran’s Azadi square – and reports of clashes with security forces.
Scores of protesters were also reported at sites in other cities.
On Saturday, students had gathered outside two universities. They initially did so to pay respect to the victims, but angry protests erupted later in the evening and tear gas was reportedly fired to disperse them.
A number of Iranian newspapers have covered the vigils for the plane victims alongside headlines such as “Shame” and “Unforgivable”.
But there has also been praise for what one pro-government newspaper called Iran’s “honest” admission of error.
There were also protests on Sunday in Tehran in support of Soleimani, and opposing the US and UK.
Britain, meanwhile, has condemned the arrest of the UK ambassador to Iran in Tehran as a “flagrant violation of international law”.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Rob Macaire was detained after attending a vigil where he was paying respects to victims of the crash, some of whom were British.
Mr. Macaire said he left the vigil when some people started chanting and had played no part in the demonstration.
Iran on Sunday summoned the ambassador to complain about “his unconventional behaviour of attending an illegal rally”, the foreign ministry website said.
Source: BBC
