Tehran has been rocked by protests after the country admitted accidentally shooting down a Ukrainian passenger jet full of its own citizens.
An Iranian missile defence system brought down the passenger plane after it took off from Tehran, amid heightened tensions stemming from the US air strike that killed Iran’s top general, Qasem Soleimani.
The military said it mistook the plane for a hostile target after launching a ballistic missile attack on two bases housing US troops in Iraq.
The Iranian government had previously repeatedly denied Western accusations that it was responsible.
All on board the passenger plane were killed. No-one was wounded in the missile attack on the bases.
A military statement carried by Iranian state media said the plane was shot down after it turned towards a “sensitive military centre” of the Revolutionary Guard.
However, the majority of the plane crash victims were Iranians or Iranian-Canadians, and the crash came just weeks after authorities quashed nationwide protests ignited by a rise in petrol prices.
The shooting down of the plane and the lack of transparency around it, along with the restrained response to the killing of Soleimani, has reignited anger within Iran at the country’s leadership.
On Saturday night, hundreds gathered at universities in Tehran to protest against the government’s late acknowledgement of the plane being shot down.
They demanded officials involved in the missile attack be removed from their positions and put on trial.
The protesters were met with force, and police broke up the demonstrations.
It came as Iran’s supreme leader offered condolences and called for an investigation into the plane crash.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed his “deep sympathy” to the families of the 176 victims, and called on the armed forces to “pursue probable shortcomings and guilt in the painful incident”.
An Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander also said his unit accepts “full responsibility” over the incident.
In an address broadcast by state TV, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that when he learned about the downing of the plane, “I wished I were dead.”
Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani blamed the tragedy on “threats and bullying” by the US after the killing of Soleimani.
He expressed condolences to families of the victims, and he called for a “full investigation” and the prosecution of those responsible.
“A sad day,” Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted. “Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster. Our profound regrets, apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims, and to other affected nations.”
The jetliner, a Boeing 737 operated by Ukrainian International Airlines, went down on the outskirts of Tehran shortly after taking off from Imam Khomeini International Airport.
The head of the airline said he was sure all along that that the company was not at fault.
Evgeniy Dikhne said on Facebook: “We did not for a second doubt that our crew and our plane could not have been the cause of this terrible, awful air catastrophe. They were our best guys and girls. The best.”
Iran had denied for several days that a missile caused the crash. But then the US and Canada, citing intelligence, said they believed Iran shot down the aircraft with a surface-to-air missile, a conclusion supported by videos of the incident.
