Defying police, Iranians protest over plane shootdown

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian demonstrators are defying a heavy police presence to protest Sunday night in Tehran over the Islamic Republic's days of denials that it shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane and killed 176 people.

Videos posted online Sunday night showed protesters shouting anti-government slogans and moving through subway stations and sidewalks. Many were near Azadi, or Freedom, Square after an earlier call for people to demonstrate there.

Other videos suggested similar protests were taking place in other Iranian cities.

Iran has deployed riot police in the capital expecting more protests after its Revolutionary Guard admitted to accidentally shooting down a passenger plane.

Iran had previously denied US claims that the country had struck down the Boeing plane accidentally.

A US official familiar with the intelligence said the aircraft was downed by two Russian-made SA-15 surface-to-air missiles. The US saw Iranian radar signals lock onto the jetliner before it was shot down.

Iranian authorities are in possession of the two flight data recorders, also known as black boxes, which Ukrainian investigators got access to Friday. They have yet to start examining the information, but have said it included communications between the pilot and Tehran flight control.

The Associated Press and CNN Newsource contributed to this report