NE NEWS SERVICE
DUBAI/TEHRAN, JAN 15
Iran said on Tuesday it had arrested people accused of a role in shooting down a Ukrainian airliner and had also detained 30 people involved in protests that have swept the nation for four days since the military belatedly admitted its error.
Last Wednesday’s shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines flight 752, killing all 176 people aboard, has led to one of the biggest public challenges to the Islamic Republic’s clerical rulers since they took power four decades ago.
Since the United States killed Iran’s most powerful military commander in a drone strike on Jan 3, Tehran has faced escalating confrontation with the West and unrest at home, both reaching levels with little precedent in its modern history.
Iran shot down the airliner on Wednesday when its military was on high alert, hours after it had fired missiles at US targets in Iraq. After days of denying a role in the air crash, it admitted it on Saturday, calling it a tragic mistake.
Protesters, many of them students, have held daily demonstrations since then, chanting “Clerics get lost!” and calling for the removal of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in power for more than 30 years. Police have responded to some protests with a violent crackdown, video posts on social media showed. Footage showed police beating protesters with batons, wounded people being carried, pools of blood on the streets and the sound of gunfire.
Iran’s police denied firing at protesters. The judiciary said 30 people had been detained in the unrest but said the authorities would show tolerance towards “legal protests”.
‘WHERE IS JUSTICE?’
Video posts on Tuesday showed scores gathered peacefully at two Tehran universities. “Where is justice?” one group chanted. The extent of the unrest is difficult to assess because of limits on independent reporting. Demonstrations tend to gather momentum later in the day and clashes have been at night.
President Hassan Rouhani promised a thorough investigation into the “unforgivable error” of shooting down the plane.
Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said some of those accused of having a role in the plane disaster had been arrested, although he did not say how many or identify them. Most of those on board the flight were Iranians or dual nationals. Canada, Ukraine, Britain and other nations who had citizens on the plane have scheduled a meeting on Thursday in London to consider legal action against Tehran.
The disaster and subsequent unrest comes amid one of the biggest escalations between Tehran and Washington since 1979.
Missiles launched at a US base in Iraq killed an American contractor in December, an attack Washington blamed on an Iran-backed group. Confrontation eventually led to the US drone strike on Jan 3 that killed Qassem Soleimani, architect of Iran’s regional network of proxy militias.
Courtesy: REUTERS
