Crowds that appeared to number well into the thousands took to the streets of Tehran on Saturday night to protest and demand that Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei resign after his Islamic government falsely told the citizens of Iran and the rest of the world that it was not responsible for shooting down a Ukrainian passenger plane this week that killed 176 people.
“Angry crowds gathered on Saturday night in at least four locations in Tehran, chanting ‘death to liars’ and calling for the country’s supreme leader to step down over the tragic military blunder, video from the scene shows,” The Daily Mail reported. “‘Death to the Islamic Republic’ protesters chanted, as the regime’s paramilitary security force allegedly used ambulances to sneak heavily armed paramilitary police into the middle of crowds to disperse the demonstration.”
Reuters reported that the protesters also chanted “Death to the dictator,” which was a direct reference to Khamenei.
“Why should I vote for this regime?” Hesham Ghanbari, 27, told Reuters. “I don’t trust them at all. They lied to us about the plane crash. Why should I trust them when they don’t trust people enough to tell the truth?”
During the most recent protests against Iranian government, Khamenei authorized the killings of 1,500 of his own citizens in an effort to stamp out dissent.
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The Boeing 737 was shot down on Tuesday after Iran fired numerous missiles at U.S. forces stationed in Iraq in retaliation for the U.S. military killing IRGC-Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, who was responsible for murdering hundreds of U.S. soldiers.
“It is unfortunate that the psychological operation of the US government and those supporting it are adding insult to the injury of the bereaved families and victimising them for certain goals by propagating such fallacies,” Iranian Government spokesman Ali Rabiei said this week in response to the plane being shot down. “No one will assume responsibility for such a big lie once it is known that the claim had been fraudulent.”
The Iranian government suddenly reversed course on Friday, after claiming that it was not responsible for shooting down the plane, and it admitted that it did shoot down the plane.
Video emerged on Tuesday night of the plane falling from the sky in a fireball before crashing into the ground, creating a massive explosion.
The New York Times reported new video on Thursday that showed the moment that the missile hit the plane, adding, “Visual and sonic clues in the footage also matched flight path information and satellite imagery of the area near where the plane crashed.”
“Iran has used bulldozers to clear away debris at the site of Ukrainian airliner crash, potentially destroying evidence as Tehran continues to deny Western allegations that one of its own missiles downed the jet, killing all 176 people on board,” The Times of Israel reported. “Photos from the site show at least one bulldozer clearing away wreckage and Giancarlo Fiorella of Bellingcat, a journalism website that focuses on fact-finding, said the group had verified pictures of other bulldozers at work at the scene, calling it ‘distressing.’”
