Protesters chant slogans and hold up posters of General Qassem Soleimani in Tehran. Photo / AP
Iranians staged protests for the third straight day after Iran's military admitted it shot down a Ukrainian airliner it mistook for a hostile aircraft amid heightened tensions with the United States last week, killing all 176 people onboard.
Videos showed demonstrators fleeing from tear gas and in one case a woman bleeding from the leg - a wound that protesters said was caused by live ammunition.
"Is this the blood of our people?" one demonstrator said as he filmed a pool of blood on the street in Tehran.
In other videos posted on social media, which could not immediately be verified, sounds of gunfire could be heard at protests in Azadi Square in the capital, as well as in the city of Shiraz.
The fury at Iran's Government marked a stunning turnaround for leaders in Tehran, after a US drone strike killed Iran's Quds Force commander, Major General Qassem Soleimani, earlier this month, prompting hundreds of thousands of Iranians to rally in a display of public mourning.
Demonstrators were filmed in at least two locations tearing down posters of Soleimani. His death early January 3 prompted Tehran to retaliate against the United States, firing more than a dozen ballistic missiles at Iraqi military bases hosting US troops.
In the hours after the attacks, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 with a surface-to-air missile, a move it blamed on "human error." Listed among the dead were 82 Iranians, 57 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians, including the crew. Most, if not all, of the Canadians were reported to be of Iranian origin or dual nationals.
In Vali-e Asr Square in Tehran, a large poster depicting Soleimani was replaced with a billboard mourning the victims of the crash.
In a televised statement, Tehran's police chief denied that police shot at protesters and said they are under orders to show restraint.
"Police treated people who had gathered with patience and tolerance," Iranian media quoted Brigadier General Hossein Rahimi as saying, the Associated Press reported. "Police did not shoot in the gatherings since broad-mindedness and restraint has been agenda of the police forces of the capital."
Residents reported a heavy security presence in central Tehran, including riot police and uniformed officers. One video showed riot police gathered near Vali-e Asr Square.
"All of Enghelab Street until Azadi Square is full of security forces," said Sahar, 32, a resident of Tehran. Like other Iranians interviewed for this article, she declined to give her full name for fear of government reprisal.
Iranian security forces have cracked down hard on demonstrations and killed at least 200 protesters during unrest over cuts to fuel subsidies across Iran in November, according to rights groups.
One of the scenes of a demonstration was Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, where people gathered at a vigil for the victims of the plane crash. The university said that 13 of its students and alumni were killed when the plane was shot down.
Security forces "started dragging people away. They took a number of people and put them in cages in police vans," said 35-year-old Soudabeh, an architect.
"At one point, the protesters freed one of the men who was detained. I saw his face and it was covered in blood - his family carried him away," she said.
Another video from the same university today showed students once again chanting against the cleric-led government.
"They killed our elites and replaced them with clerics!" they shouted.
Riot police fired tear gas at demonstrators gathered near the Shademaan metro station in Tehran, according to the New York-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran.
Protesters are calling for accountability in the accidental downing of the flight. Iranian officials initially denied reports that the plane was brought down but later admitted that the Revolutionary Guard, which maintains military bases in the area of the crash, shot it down by mistake.
Officials and state media issued apologies for failing to report accurately on the crash.
"What is missing is the voice of the people," students at the Amir Kabir University of Technology in Tehran, another site of recent protests, said in a statement.
"In the past two months, the regime's dysfunction has been proven - it's a regime that has only one answer to any problem: oppression," the statement said.
"We know that America's presence in the Middle East has caused chaos and turmoil, and we object to the presence of any invading power," the statement continued. It added that the US presence in the region "must not turn into an excuse for internal repression."