An Iran Guard leader takes the blame for shooting down the Ukrainian jet.

Shootdown of plane has citizens protesting

TEHRAN, Iran — The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace division said Saturday his unit accepts full responsibility for the accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian jetliner, killing all 176 people aboard.

In an address broadcast by state TV, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh said when he learned about the downing of the plane, “I wished I was dead.”

Iranian officials for three days had adamantly dismissed allegations of a missile strike as Western propaganda.

Hajizadeh said he raised the possibility to his superiors that his forces shot down the plane as early as Wednesday morning because “the simultaneous occurrence of the launch and crash was suspicious.”

On Saturday night, hundreds gathered at universities in Tehran to protest the government’s late acknowledgement of the plane being shot down. They demanded officials involved in the missile attack be removed from their positions and tried. Police broke up the demonstrations.

Late Saturday, Britain accused Iran of violating international law after its ambassador was arrested and briefly detained during protests in Tehran. Iranian media said Ambassador Rob Macaire was arrested outside a university and detained for more than an hour before being released.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said “the arrest of our ambassador in Tehran without grounds or explanation is a flagrant violation of international law.”

Hajizadeh said Guard forces ringing the capital had beefed up their air defenses and were at the “highest level of readiness,” fearing that the U.S. would retaliate for Iran’s ballistic missile attack on an air base in Iraq where U.S. military were operating. He said he suggested Tehran should close its airspace but no action was taken.

He said the airline’s pilot and crew had done nothing wrong, but an officer made the “bad decision” to open fire on the plane after mistaking it for a cruise missile.

“We were prepared for an all-out conflict,” he said.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, expressed his “deep sympathy” to the families of the victims and called on the armed forces to “pursue probable shortcomings and guilt in the painful incident.”

Efrem Lukatsky The Associated Press Flowers and candles are placed in front of portraits of the flight crew members of the Ukrainian 737-800 plane that crashed on the outskirts of Tehran, at a memorial inside Boryspil International Airport outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday.