POLICE clashed with hundreds of supporters of Iran's opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in Tehran yesterday, as a rally marking the 30th anniversary of the storming of the US embassy turned violent.
One witness said: "Protesters were chanting, 'Death to dictators'. Police used batons to disperse them." Iranians traditionally chant, "Death to America" at the annual state-organised rally.
Another witness told of teargas being fired and of p
olice making at least five arrests.
Reformist website Mowjcamp said some people had been hurt when police opened fire on protesters at Haft-e Tir square. It also reported other protests in the cities of Shiraz and Rasht.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards and their allied Basij militia had warned the opposition not to try to hijack the anti-US rally to revive protests against the clerical establishment after June's disputed presidential election.
The crackdown showed no compromise from the leadership, underlined by a recent comment from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that it was a crime to question the 12 June vote in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election.
Defeated candidates Mr Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, who are committed to reform, had urged supporters to take to the streets yesterday to protest against the government, despite warnings from the security forces about "illegal gatherings".
Mr Karoubi, who joined the protests, was attacked by plainclothes officers, according to his website, which said: "One of his bodyguards was hospitalised."
Mobile phone networks had been shut down to try to prevent protesters from organising – but that move patently failed.
Basij militia on motorbikes drove at crowds and used batons on protesters. "There are hundreds, chanting 'God is greatest'. Police and Basij militia are outnumbering the protesters," one witness said. Another said: "Hundreds of police, riot police, Basij militia and plainclothes officers are in the main squares."
Protesters also targeted the Russian embassy in Tehran, chanting "the Russian embassy is a den of spies" and "death to Russia", in an apparent protest at Moscow's swift recognition of Mr Ahmadinejad's re-election.
The turmoil after the June vote was the worst in Iran since the protests that led to the overthrown of the Shah three decades ago. Authorities denied vote-rigging and portrayed the unrest as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the Islamic state.
Iran has been rocked by street protests, which have also exposed serious rifts over reform in the clerical leadership, already under international pressure over its nuclear programme.
Yesterday, thousands of Iranians gathered in front of the former American embassy for the latest state-organised rally, where influential lawmaker Gholamali Haddadadel criticised the opposition leaders.
"I don't know how they (opposition leaders] are going to answer to the great Iranian nation. They claim they are followers of the revolution but issue statements that are in the interests of Iran's enemies," he told the crowd.
US president Barack Obama used the anniversary of the hostage crisis to urge Tehran to make concessions over its nuclear programme, saying it needed to turn the page on the past and forge a new relationship with the United States.
"Iran must choose," Mr Obama said. "We have heard for 30 years what the Iranian government is against; the question now is what kind of future it is for."
