Iranians bury victims of downed Ukrainian plane amid protests
TEHRAN: Iranians on Wednesday buried their dead from a Ukraine-bound plane, which was shot down by the country military guards last week, killing 176 people on board that further led to the ongoing protests calling for the stepping down of the current regime in the country ruled by Islamic clerics.
Several victims were buried in the sprawling Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery south of Tehran, while others would be transferred abroad, Iranian media said.
An online video showed the national flag being ripped from the coffin of one victim when relatives collected the body and the mother shouted, "Tear it off".
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Protesters took to the streets of Iranian cities for four days after the armed forces finally acknowledged on Saturday, after days of denials, that they brought down the plane.
In several places, demonstrators met a fierce police response.
Iranians on social media called for more protests on Wednesday, but there was no sign of the kind of rallies held on previous days. Instead, videos showed riot police massed outside universities, the focal point for demonstrations.
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A new international crisis has erupted since the plane was downed by air defences when the armed forces were on high alert for US reprisals, hours after Iran launched missiles against US targets in Iraq in retaliation for a Pentagon-ordered drone strike that killed a top Iranian commander on January 3.
Most of those on Ukraine International Airlines flight 752, bound for Kyiv in Ukraine, were Iranians or dual citizens, many of them students returning to their studies abroad or families on their way home after seeing relatives in Iran.