Iranian protesters on the third day of demonstrations

Iranian protesters took to the streets on the third day of anti-government demonstrations after they admitted to crashing a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 people on board. Video posted online shows students near universities in Tehran and Isfahan on Monday cheering in front of the country’s rulers, “Clergyman!” Authorities denied firing, but the semi-official Fars news agency reported that police had “fired tear gas in some areas” in an attempt to disperse the demonstrators. The videos showed protesters coughing and spitting as they tried to escape tear gas. Voice of America could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos. Tehran’s police chief, General Hossein Rahimi, insisted that authorities treated the protesters with “patience and tolerance.” “Police have not fired at the rallies as sharpness and restraint have been the target of the capital’s police forces,” Iranian media quoted him as saying. Protests erupted after Iran on Saturday admitted that “human error” caused a rocket operator to shoot down the Boeing 737 last Wednesday. The accident came hours after Iran fired 16 ballistic missiles at Iraqi bases housing US forces in retaliation for President Donald Trump ordering a January 3 drone strike at Baghdad airport that killed Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard. As the protests against Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei began, Trump voiced support for the demonstrators and warned Iranian officials, “Don’t kill your protesters.”