Iranians protest for third day after plane disaster

Iranian protesters gathered for a third day on Jan. 13 in the capital amid public anger over the military's admission that it had shot down a civilian airliner last week, videos from inside Iran posted on social media showed.

It was not immediately possible to authenticate the video.

"They killed our elites and replaced them with clerics," scores of protesters chanted at a Tehran university after the downing of the plane carrying 176 people, some them Iranian students. There were no survivors.

Video also showed dozens of police in riot gear in another area of Tehran.

Iran's police said on Jan. 13 officers had not fired at protesters demonstrating over Tehran's admission that it shot down a passenger plane, as video on social media recorded gunshots and pools of blood.

U.S. President Donald Trump, tweeting on Jan. 12 during the second day of Iranian demonstrations, told the authorities "don't kill your protesters."   

The demonstrations at home are the latest development in one of the most destabilizing escalations between the United States and Iran since the Iranian revolution of 1979.   

Tehran has acknowledged shooting down the Ukrainian jetliner in error, killing 176 people, hours after it had fired at U.S. bases to retaliate for the killing of Iran's most powerful military leader in a drone strike ordered by Trump.     

Iranian public anger, rumbling for days as Iran repeatedly denied it was to blame for Jan. 8's plane crash, erupted into protests on Saturday when the military admitted it. Demonstrators turned out again on Jan. 12.   

Videos on social media, posted late on Jan. 12, recorded gunshots in the vicinity of protests in Tehran's Azadi Square. Footage showed blood on the ground, wounded...