WORLD> Middle East
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WORLD> Middle East
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Defiant Tehran protesters battle police
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-21 08:58 Obama has offered to open talks with Iran to ease a nearly 30-year diplomatic freeze, but the upheaval could complicate any attempts at outreach.
An estimated 3,000 marchers marched directly onto a blockade of security forces keeping them from approaching Azadi Square, where Mousavi gathered hundreds of thousands of people on Monday. Police first fired tear gas and water cannons at the protesters, witnesses said. Then came a second wave. It included volunteer militiamen on motorcycles chasing down demonstrators. Witnesses claimed some marchers were beaten with batons by security forces or metal pipes wielded by the militiamen known as Basijis, who are directed by the powerful Revolutionary Guard. Protesters lit trash bins on fire -- sending pillars of black smoke over the city -- and hurled rocks. Some managed to wrestle away a few motorcycles and set them ablaze. One witness said that people came from apartments to aid the wounded demonstrators or allowed them to take shelter. Helicopters hovered over central Tehran until dusk. The witnesses said that between 50 and 60 protesters were seriously beaten by police and pro-government militia and taken to Imam Khomeini hospital in central Tehran. People could be seen dragging away comrades bloodied by baton strikes. Nearby, Tehran University was cordoned off by police and militia. On the streets, witnesses said some protesters also shouted "Death to Khamenei!" -- another sign of once unthinkable challenges to the authority of the successor of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the Islamic Revolution. Mousavi, who served was prime minister during the 1980s, is not believed to seek the collapse of the Islamic system. But he claims that state powers were abused to skew the election results and re-elect Ahmadinejad in a landslide. That stand has increasingly brought him and his supporters into direct confrontation with Iran's highest authorities. A statement on Mousavi's website said he and his supporters were not seeking to confront their "brothers" among Iran's security forces or the "sacred system" that preserves the country's freedom and independence. "We are confronting deviations and lies. We seek to bring reform that returns us to the pure principals of the Islamic Republic," it said. Khamenei sided firmly with Ahmadinejad on Friday, saying the vote reflected popular will and ordering opposition leaders to end street protests. A report on Press TV listed the fallout from the unrest, including 700 buildings and 300 banks damaged and 400 police hurt. It gave no similar list for the protesters. At least seven people have died, according to the official Iranian count, but the total could be more. Mousavi's extremely slim hope of having the election results annulled rest with Iran's Guardian Council, an unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts. But Mousavi and another moderate candidate in the race, Mahdi Karroubi, did not appear at a meeting called to discuss their allegations of fraud, a council official told state TV. The council has said it was prepared to conduct a limited recount of ballots at sites where candidates claim irregularities. In a letter to the council, posted on one of Mousavi's website, he listed alleged violations that include his representatives being expelled from polling stations and fake ballots at some mobile polling stations.
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