Street Protests Flare in Iran

The Independent

Iranian security forces killed at least five people yesterday, including a nephew of the opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, during the fiercest clashes with anti-government protesters in months. Amateur video footage purportedly from the centre of Tehran showed an enraged crowd carrying away one of the casualties, chanting: "I'll kill the one who killed my brother." In several locations around the city centre demonstrators fought back against security forces, hurling stones and setting their motorcycles, cars and vans ablaze, according to video footage and pro-reform websites. A close aide to Mr Mousavi – a main contender in the presidential election in June – said the 35-year-old nephew, Ali Mousavi, died of his injuries in a hospital in Tehran. Mr Mousavi's website and another reformist website, Parlemannews.ir, said he died during clashes in which security forces reportedly fired on demonstrators. Beyond the capital, there were street protests in at least three other cities: Isfahan and Najafabad in central Iran, and Shiraz in the south. The protesters in Tehran tried to cut off roads with burning barricades. One police officer was photographed with blood streaming down his face. The protests began with thousands of opposition supporters chanting "death to the dictator," a reference to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as they took to the streets in defiance of official warnings of a harsh crackdown on any demonstrations coinciding with a religious observance on Sunday.

Iranians were marking Ashoura, commemorating the seventh-century death in battle of one of Shia Islam's most honoured saints. Security forces tried, but failed, to disperse protesters on a central Tehran street with tear gas, charges by baton-wielding officers and warning shots fired into the air. Eyewitnesses and the pro-reform website Rah-e-Sabz said they then opened fire directly at protesters, killing at least three people. A fourth protester was shot dead on a nearby street, they said. Eyewitnesses said one victim was an elderly man who had a gunshot wound to the forehead. He was seen being carried away by opposition supporters with blood covering his face; more than two dozen opposition supporters were injured, some with limbs broken from beatings, according to the same sources. Yesterday's clashes marked the bloodiest confrontation between protesters and security forces since the height of the unrest in the weeks after the June election. The opposition maintains that President Ahmadinejad won another term in power through massive vote fraud and that Mr Mousavi was the true winner. Mobile phone services were unreliable and internet connections were slowed to a crawl, as has happened during most other days of protest in an apparent government attempt to limit publicity and prevent protesters from organising gatherings. (Read more...)