Iran security forces beat opposition protesters

Tehran: Iranian security forces fired warning shots and teargas in Tehran yesterday to disperse opposition demonstrators seeking to renew their challenge to the government six months after a disputed presidential election.

The security forces fired shots into the air as they clashed with supporters of opposition leader Mir Hussain Mousavi at a state rally marking the killing of three students under the former Shah, the reformist website Mowjcamp said.

"Security forces are beating demonstrators, men and women. Some of them are injured and bleeding," said one witness in Tehran's central Haft-e Tir square.

Thousands of riot police, Revolutionary Guard forces and pro-government Basij militiamen flooded the area around Tehran University since the morning, vowing to prevent any unrest from spilling out into the streets.

Cell phone networks around the universities were shut down, and police and members of the elite Revolutionary Guards surrounded all the university entrances and were checking IDs of anyone entering to prevent opposition activists from joining the students, witnesses said.

YouTube footage

Footage posted on YouTube purported to show thousands protesting inside Tehran University, chanting "death to the dictator" and slogans against the Basij — but there was no sign of riot police or security forces. Some protesters scuffled with hardline students who were holding a counter-protest on the campus.

The two sides pushed and shoved in a crowd, according to witnesses.

The June 12 presidential election, which secured President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, sparked Iran's worst unrest since the Islamic revolution three decades ago and exposed deep divisions in the establishment.

Journalists working for foreign media were told by officials not to leave their offices to cover stories from yesterday until tomorrow, but witnesses told Reuters police clashed with protesters in various Tehran squares to disperse them.

"I saw at least 10 people being arrested and taken to minibuses," one witness said, while another said police fired teargas at protesters in Vali-ye Asr square.

Social sites: Getting the news across

Despite Tehran’s efforts to choke off access to internet sites Youtube, Twitter and Facebook, social networking tools have succeeded in telling the world about the clampdown on public protests in Tehran.
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Youtube, Twitter and Facebook were the main sources of information to the outside world during the crackdown on public protests in the wake of the disputed June 12 presidential polls.

In a 37-second footage posted on Youtube, thousands of students were shown shouting against the Ahmadinejad regime. "They have no guns, but they have commitment, wrote Nedaagain on Twitter. The students are fighting for their rights and freedom against a corrupt regime," she said.

At 2.36pm UAE local time (10:36 GMT), Nedaaagain wrote that Basij militia – the plainclothes government forces — were bashing people to death. The students are waiving the 'original’ Persian flag.

Another user going by the name of 'made-in-Iran’ wrote: "2 ppl [people] have been shot in the leg. One Basij bike on fire." The news was dispatched on the site at 2.53pm UAE time.

Another Youtube footage showed demonstrators surrounded by female students in what it seemed to be a kind of protective cordon for men against the "brutality of Basij forces".

A student from the Amir Kabir University in Tehran dispatched a short message on Twitter calling for help as the ''situation is getting very critical where the IT and engineering students are being barred from going onto the streets by Basij.

A tweet from Shiraz said: "I am proud of my birth town Shiraz. People there are showing solidarity with students across Iran."

— By Duraid Al Baik, Associate Editor, Gulf News

Keep up to date with the latest developments on the ground in Iran as the election protests grow.