New security camera footage posted online shows two Iranian missiles struck a Ukrainian passenger airliner after takeoff from Tehran on January 8.
The new video, which was verified by The New York Times, emerged on January 14 amid continued protests in Iran as President Hassan Rohani called for a special court to be set up to investigate the downing of the plane by the country’s air defenses that killed all 176 people on board.
Also on January 14, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili announced the first arrests made over the air disaster, without naming them or specifying how many.
The New York Times said that the missiles were launched from an Iranian military facility some 13 kilometers away from the Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Boeing 737-800. The footage shows that neither projectile immediately took down the plane which catches fire and is circling back toward Tehran airport, it said.
The video was originally uploaded on YouTube by an Iranian user.
"Extensive investigations have been carried out and some people have been arrested," Esmaili said.
He added that around 30 people had been arrested in the protests over the air disaster as thousands of protesters took to the streets in Tehran and several other cities to vent their anger with the clerical establishment over the incident.
Meanwhile, new videos circulating on social media purported to show fresh protests on January 14 in the evening at universities in Tehran, along with clashes between students and Basij militia loyal to the establishment.
Rohani said earlier that all those responsible for the “unforgivable error” must be “punished."
Daily protests have been held in Iranian cities since January 11, after the country's military said UIA Flight PS752 was shot down "unintentionally" by an antiaircraft missile shortly after it took off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport three days earlier. Most of those killed in the disaster were Iranian and Canadian nationals.
The crash occurred with Iran’s air-defense forces on high alert following an Iranian ballistic-missile attack a few hours earlier against U.S. forces in Iraq.
"The judiciary should form a special court with a ranking judge and dozens of experts," Rohani said in his speech, adding that the Iranian armed forces' admission in the incident was “a good first step.”
"For our people it is very important in this incident that whoever was at fault or negligent at any level" faces justice, he said.
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Fresh Protests As Iranian President Calls Flight Downing An 'Unforgivable Error'
WATCH: Fresh Protests As Iranian President Calls Flight Downing An 'Unforgivable Error'
Authorities in Tehran denied using live ammunition on demonstrators, after videos posted online purported to show police and security forces opening fire and using tear gas to disperse protesters near Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square on the night of January 12.
Reuters said videos showed blood on the ground and images of people who appeared to be security personnel in the vicinity of protests carrying rifles.
Other posts showed police in riot gear hitting protesters with batons on the street, the agency said.
The U.S. State Department has warned Iranian authorities that Washington was not going to "tolerate" violence against the protesters.
"We want the regime to know that the United States is watching, that the world is watching, and that we are going to shine a very, very big light on any abuse by the regime to their own people," spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told RFE/RL on January 13.
The Ukrainian airliner was carrying 82 Iranians, 57 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, 10 Afghans, three Germans, and three Britons.
Iran has invited Canada and Ukraine to take part in the investigation into the plane disaster.
A team of Canadian experts visited the site on January 14 where the Boeing 737 crashed, Iran's ISNA news agency reported.
Earlier in the day, Iranian state TV reported in an online post that aviation officials from Iran, Ukraine, and Canada held a meeting in Tehran on January 14 over the investigation of the crash.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was glad Tehran had identified the downing of the plane as an "appalling mistake" and added that it was important the bodies of the British victims are now repatriated.
Asked whether Iran should face consequences, Johnson told the BBC, "They're clearly guilty of an appalling error, I don't think we are currently envisaging any further escalation of the tensions."
Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of the aerospace division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), said on January 11 that his unit accepts “full responsibility” for the tragedy.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed his “deep sympathy” to the families of the 176 victims and called on the armed forces to "pursue probable shortcomings and guilt in the painful incident.”