By NASSER KARIMI and WILLIAM J. KOLE IN TEHRAN
FOOTAGE of a teenager appearing to bleed to death in the street has been posted on the internet by protesters trying to beat Iran's media blackout following deadly clashes over the country's disputed elections.
State media yesterday reported ten more deaths, taking the official toll for a week of confrontations to at least 17. State-run television inside Iran said 100 were injured in violence that flared between demonstrators and police officers wielding tr
uncheons, tear gas and water cannons in Tehran on Saturday.
Iran has imposed strict controls on foreign coverage of the unrest, banning correspondents from going into the streets. The BBC yesterday confirmed Jon Leyne, its Tehran correspondent, had been asked to leave the country. Reporters Without Borders said 23 journalists had been arrested over the past week.
The video clip purports to show a girl named as Neda, thought to have been no older than 16, dying as frantic attempts are made to save her life. It is understood she had been watching Saturday's protests when she was shot by Iran's militia.
Last night, defeated presidential election candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi called on his supporters to continue protests but show restraint, his website reported.
"In your protests, continue to show restraint. I am expecting armed forces to avoid irreversible damage," he said.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned his international critics to stop "interfering" and implied they were to blame for the unrest.
But yesterday, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: "I reject categorically the idea that the protesters in Iran are manipulated or motivated by foreign countries."
The clashes between police and protesters were to be "deplored", he said, and added: "This can only damage Iran's standing in the eyes of the world."
In remarks that analysts believe were directed at Gordon Brown and US president Barack Obama, Mr Ahmadinejad told clerics yesterday: "Definitely by hasty remarks you will not be placed in the circle of friendship with the Iranian nation. Therefore I advise you to correct your interfering stances."
Meanwhile, a US senator criticised Ayatollah Khamenei yesterday for refusing to give in to demonstrators' demands for a re-run of the disputed 12 June election that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to office.
Indiana Republican senator Richard Lugar, one of the Senate's most respected voices on foreign affairs, said the Ayatollah had laid the ground for a "potentially very brutal outcome".
