Several death in Iran clashes

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Several death in Iran clashes
27 december 2009

TEHRAN – Security forces shot dead four protesters in Tehran Sunday in a crackdown on vast crowds of opposition supporters who turned a Shiite mourning event into a mass protest, a website and witnesses said.

Police denied however that anyone had died in the clashes, which witnesses said came as tens of thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets of Tehran for a second straight day to use Ashura rituals to stage protests.

Witnesses said police also used batons and tear gas in the crackdown, which followed stern warnings by the authorities that they would crush attempts to use the annual solemn Ashura processions for staging demonstrations.

The clashes, which followed sporadic skirmishes on Saturday, marked the bloodiest showdown between protesters and security forces since the height of unrest in June which broke out after disputed presidential elections.

"Three of our compatriots were martyred and two were injured in clashes. The (website) reporter who was on the scene said these three were directly shot at by military forces," opposition website Rahesabz.net said.

It said the clashes took place near College bridge in the middle of main Enghelab street.

Rahesabz said a fourth protester was later killed near Vali Asr intersection on Enghelab.

"The people are carrying the body of this martyr and are shouting slogans," it said citing eyewitnesses.

The website said shots had been heard at Enghelab square.

Police however denied that protesters were killed in the clashes.

"Up to this moment we have received no reports on persons killed by the police," an unnamed police source told Fars news agency. "However a number of policemen have been injured in today's riots."

Witnesses said that enraged protesters fought back at the security forces, pelting them with stones and chanting, "We fight and we die to get back Iran."

The also yanked off railings dividing Enghelab and made a barricade in the middle of the street.

"Protesters beat up and chased away two basijis (militia) equipped with chains and set their motorbikes on fire," a witness said.

Rahesabz also reported heavy clashes between protesters and security forces in Isfahan and Najafabad -- the hometown of late dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri -- the city of Babol in northern Iran as well as in the southern city of Shiraz.

As riot police battled the protesters in Tehran, crowds of pro-government demonstrators gathered in the middle of Enghelab street to voice their support for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, witnesses said.

Many were shouting, "This army (of people) has come for the love of the leader" the witnesses said.

Anti-government protesters appeared to be a mix of young and middle-aged people with many women among them.

They were seen both beating on their chests in traditional Ashura mourning as well as shouting anti-government slogans.

Many were chanting "Death to the dictator" and "It is the bloody month and the basiji will fall," referring to the Islamist militia which plays a key role in suppressing protests.

They also chanted "Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein" in support of opposition leader and defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

By afternoon, large numbers of police and plainclothes security force members on motor bikes had taken control of Enghelab street, a witness said.

Opponents of President Ahmadinejad's June 12 re-election have increasingly used a series of government-backed public events to mount protests, many of which have ended in clashes with police.

The last known deaths during street protests in Tehran were on June 20. The opposition says that at least 72 people were killed in June's protests while the authorities put the figure at 36, including members of the basiji.

Three protesters also died in custody after being beaten.

The 10-day Ashura ceremonies, which climax on Sunday, commemorate the slaying of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed and one of the most revered figures of Shiite Islam, who died at the hands of the armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680 AD.

On Saturday, riot-police clashed with protesters on Enghelab street and in north Tehran, where thousands gathered near the Jamaran mosque where the late founder of the Islamic revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeni addressed people.

Islamist vigilantes wielding batons and chains also broke into the mosque and attacked people, interrupting a speech by reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami, pro-reform website Salaamnews said.






Source: AFP

 

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Witnesses: At least 4 Iranian protesters killed
IRAN - 27 DECEMBER 2009

TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian security forces on Sunday killed at least four people, including a nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, during the fiercest clashes with anti-government protesters in months, opposition Web sites and witnesses said.

Amateur video footage purportedly from the center of Tehran showed an enraged crowd carrying away one of the casualties, chanting, "I'll kill, I'll kill the one who killed my brother." In several locations in the center of the capital, demonstrators fought back furiously against security forces, hurling stones and setting their motorcycles, cars and vans ablaze, according to video footage and pro-reform Web sites.

Demonstrations also took place in at least three other cities.

A close aide to Mousavi, a presidential contender in a disputed June election, said the 35-year-old nephew, Ali Mousavi, died of injuries in a Tehran hospital. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears of reprisals from the government.

Mousavi's Web site and another reformist Web site, Parlemannews.ir, also said Ali Mousavi died during clashes in which security forces reportedly fired on demonstrators.

The protesters in Tehran tried to cut off roads with burning barricades that filled the sky with billowing black smoke. One police officer was photographed with blood streaming down his face after he was set upon by the crowd in a blazing street.

The protests began with thousands of opposition supporters chanting "Death to the dictator," a reference to hard-line 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 Shiite Islam's most beloved 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. They then opened fire directly at protesters, killing at least three people, said witnesses and the pro-reform Web site Rah-e-Sabz. A fourth protester was shot dead on a nearby street, they said.

Witnesses 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 of them seriously, with limbs broken from beatings, according to witnesses. There were also violent confrontations in at least three other major cities: Isfahan and Najafabad in central Iran and Shiraz in the south.

The clashes marked the bloodiest confrontation between protesters and security forces since the height of the unrest in the weeks after June's election. The opposition says Ahmadinejad won the election through massive vote fraud and that Mousavi was the true winner.

Reporters from foreign media organizations were barred from covering the demonstrations on Tehran's central Enghelab Street, or Revolution Street, and the reports of deaths could not be independently confirmed. Video footage circulating on the Web could also not be authenticated.

Ambulance sirens could be heard near the site of the protests.

The witnesses and opposition Web sites said angry protesters threw stones at security forces and set dozens of their motorbikes on fire. Police helicopters circled overhead as clouds of black smoke billowed into the sky over the capital.

Tehran's police chief denied officers fired on the crowd — or that they were even armed.

"No report of death has been sent to the police," Azizollah Rajabzadeh said, according to the semiofficial ISNA news agency. "No one has been killed. Police did not open fire and the present officers did not carry weapons."

Police had blocked streets leading to the center of the capital to try to prevent thousands of people from joining the protest. Still, many opposition supporters managed to break the security wall.

Fierce clashes also broke out Sunday between security forces and opposition supporters in the cities of Isfahan and Najafabad in central Iran, the Rah-e-Sabz Web site said.

Cell phone services were down and Internet connections were slowed to a crawl, as has happened during most other days of opposition protest in an apparent government attempt to limit publicity and prevent protesters from organizing.

Opposition activists have held a series of anti-government protests since the death of a dissident cleric last week.

The Dec. 20 death of the 87-year-old Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a sharp critic of Iran's leaders, has given a new push to opposition protests, which have endured despite a heavy security crackdown since the election.

His memorials have brought out not only the young, urban activists who filled the ranks of earlier protests, but also older, more religious Iranians who revered Montazeri on grounds of faith as much as politics. Tens of thousands marched in his funeral procession in the holy city of Qom on Monday, many chanting slogans against the government.

Iran's police chief, Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, had threatened tougher action against protesters on Sunday should they hold rallies.

Opposition leaders have used holidays and other symbolic days in recent months to stage anti-government rallies.

Iran is under pressure both from its domestic opposition within the country and from the United States and its European allies, which are pushing Iran to suspend key parts of its nuclear program.










Source: Associated Press

 

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Iran website says police refuse orders to shoot
Sun, Dec 27 05:26 PM

An Iranian opositon website said police forces refused orders to shoot at pro-reform protesters during clashes on Sunday in central Tehran, where it reported earlier four demonstraters had been killed.

"Police forces are refusing their commanders' orders to shoot at demonstrators in central Tehran ... some of them try to shoot into air when pressured by their commanders," the Jaras website said.

(Reporting by Reuters Tehran bureau)

 

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Leading Iran cleric condemns Ashura deaths
IRAN - 28 DECEMBER 2009

TEHRAN – An opposition leader criticized Iran's hardline rulers on Monday for killing innocent people during a religious festival, a reformist website reported.

Police said five people died in Tehran when pro-reform protesters fought security forces on Sunday, the most violent clashes since a contested June 12 presidential vote sparked political turmoil across Iran.

"What has happened to this religious system that it orders the killing of innocent people during the holy day of Ashura?," moderate cleric Mehdi Karoubi, who came fourth in the election, said in a statement, the Jaras website reported.

"Why is such a holy day not respected by the rulers?"

Opposition websites said police opened fire on protesters in central Tehran. Eight people were killed in the capital and other Iranian cities when tens of thousands of opposition backers took to the streets, they said.

The deaths were the first in street protests since the immediate aftermath of the disputed June election.

Among the dead was opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi's nephew, whose death was described as a "martyrdom" by a Mousavi ally. State TV said "unknown assailants" killed Ali Habibi Mousavi Khamene.

Police said investigations were under way into the suspicious deaths and more than 300 protesters had been arrested in Tehran.

Jaras said police shot and killed four protesters in central Tehran and that unrest had spread to other parts of Iran, including the holy city of Qom, Shiraz, Isfahan, Najafabad, Mashhad and Babol.

The reports could not be independently verified because foreign media are banned from covering protests.

The White House condemned the "unjust suppression" of civilians by the Iranian government and said the United States was on the side of protesters.

UNREST ACROSS IRAN

The killings showed that the confrontation between the opposition and the clerical establishment had entered a volatile phase, in which the security forces appeared determined to stamp out the pro-reform movement.

The disputed re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has plunged Iran into its biggest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution, exposing deepening divisions in its ruling elite and setting off a wave of protests that the opposition says left over 70 people dead.

Officials say the death toll was half that number.

The post-election turmoil has also made Iranian officials unable to resolve a dispute over Iran's nuclear program, which the West fears is a cover to build bombs. Iran denies this.

Authorities had strongly warned the opposition to avoid using the two-day Shi'ite Muslim Tasoua and Ashura festival over the weekend to revive protests against the clerical establishment.

This year's Ashura coincided with the seventh day of mourning for leading dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died a week ago at the age of 87 in Qom.

A spiritual patron of Mousavi's movement, he was a fierce critic of the hardline clerical establishment.


Source: Reuters

 

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Dubai TV seeks answer from Iran on missing reporter
28 DECEMBER 2009

Dubai TV expects a reply from Tehran authorities on Monday regarding the whereabouts of its missing Iran-based reporter Reza al-Basha, the channel's assignment desk manager Rola Sayegh told AFP.

"We still do not have any answers but we are expecting an answer from the Iranian authorities" later Monday, Sayegh said.

"We're just communicating with the office in Tehran... and they're talking to the Iranian authorities," she added.

Reza al-Basha, a 27-year-old Syrian, has been working for Dubai TV in Iran for a year.

A colleague told AFP in Tehran that the Foreign Press Bureau had confirmed Basha had been arrested during opposition protests on Sunday.

A statement from Dubai Media Incorporated, which owns Dubai TV, said the company had "lost contact with the correspondent."

Opponents of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinjad's controversial June re-election clashed with security forces as they used the Shiite holy day of Ashura to mount fresh protests against the government.

At least eight people died and more than 300 were arrested, police said.

In June, shortly after post-vote protests broke out in Iran, the Foreign Press Bureau banned journalists working for foreign media from covering opposition demonstrations.


Source: AFP