Grief turns to rage as Iran confesses

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THREE days after an Iranian missile left the bodies of 176 people scattered across a Tehran suburb, the country finally reached boiling point.

Pressure had been building as the evidence mounted that the regime was behind the downing of Flight PS752 on Wednesday.

But when the admission came from Iran’s leaders that “human error” had led its forces to shoot down the civilian airliner after mistaking it for a US cruise missile, protesters finally hit the streets last night for the first time.

Crowds of students gathered outside a central Tehran university to denounce the Revolutionary Guard, the army unit controlled by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“Shame on you,” they shouted. “End your rule over the country.”

Iranian police briefly arrested the British ambassador in Tehran, who had attended an earlier vigil, and accused him of instigating protests.

Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, said the arrest of Rob Macaire – who was released after three hours in detention – “without grounds or explanation is a flagrant violation of international law”.

The surging anger over the crash and the days of false denials come at a sensitive moment in Iran, just months after the regime’s forces killed hundreds of civilians while crushing nationwide protests.

The ayatollah quickly insisted he was not responsible for misleading the public about the crash and moved to place the blame on the military.

“As soon as the supreme leader was informed of the catastrophic mistake” he ordered the truth to be “made known to the people explicitly and honestly,” the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

In an official statement on his website, he ordered the military to address “shortcomings” and expressed “sincere condolences” but stopped short of apologising for the crash.

There were indications that the relatively moderate circle around Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president, was pushing blame towards its hardline rivals inside the Revolutionary Guard.

Hesamedin Ashena, an adviser to Mr Rouhani, said the Revolutionary Guard had “cheated” the public by denying its involvement in Wednesday’s disaster.

“What they regarded as news was a lie. What they regarded as a lie was actually the news,” he said. “May God save us from cover-ups.”

The anger directed towards the Revolutionary Guard marked a sharp reversal from earlier in the week, when an estimated million people turned out to the public funeral of Qassim Soleimani, one of the force’s top leaders, and many celebrated Iran’s missile barrage against the US.

Gen Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander who triumphantly took credit for the missile attack on US forces in Iraq on Wednesday, looked forlorn as he accepted responsibility for his men’s mistake on state television. “When I learnt of this error, I wished to die. I accept all responsibility for this,” he said.

He added his forces had been braced for US retaliation to the missiles fired hours earlier and that a single air defence operator had mistaken the