Iran’s admission that its armed forces shot down a Ukrainian passenger airliner appeared intended to salvage its credibility at a time of heightened international tension and domestic unrest. Instead, it triggered quick anger from Iranians aimed at the country’s leadership.

Security forces in Tehran fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of people who took to the streets in protest against the military, which on Saturday acknowledged shooting down the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 by mistake.

Some Iranians blamed their leadership for incompetence and for lying during the first three days after the crash when it denied Western claims the plane had been hit by an Iranian missile, killing 176 people. Hundreds gathered outside Amirkabir University of Technology in the capital, where some young men tore down posters of Qassem Soleimani, the prominent general who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad last week and mourned as a national hero.

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