Khamenei loyalists take to the streets

Tehran: Tens of thousands of hardline clerics took part in state-sponsored rallies across Iran on Monday in support of the country's supreme leader.

Hardliners were angered after pictures of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were burned in last week's protests and students denounced him as an "oppressor", taboo-shattering actions rarely seen in Iran. His supporters consider Khamenei to be above the law and answerable only to God and any criticism of him is interpreted by authorities as insulting Islam and punishable by long jail terms.

"Long live Khamenei, our leader," clerics shouted in Shiraz, southern Iran. And "death to opponents of the rule of the jurist [Khamenei]," rallyists chorused in the holy city Qom, south of the capital Tehran. The rallies were broadcast live on state television.

Khamenei, who holds final say in all state matters, has become a focus of opposition protests after he approved President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election in the disputed June presidential vote.

Monday's rallies were held in the name of support for the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the US-allied shah, after state television picked up an isolated case of a few men tearing up a photo of Khomeini.

State TV, controlled by hardliners, aired footage of the pictures being burned and suggested that it was done by supporters of Opposition leader Mir Hussain Mousavi.