Shots fired as Iran protests intensify

Shots fired as Iran protests intensify

By Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran

Published: Dec twenty-seven 2009 11:49 | Last updated: Dec twenty-seven 2009 14:53

Central Tehran turned into a singular dispute zone upon Sunday when confidence forces clashed with hundreds of thousands of antithesis supporters.

The antithesis used Ashura, a day which Hossein, a third Imam of Shias as well as a grandson of prophet Mohammad, was killed in a 7th century.

Demonstrators marched a 10km widen from Imam Hossein Square in eastern Tehran toward Azadi Square in a western end. They held feat signs as well as wore green wristbands as well as scarves, a symbolic colour of a opposition. Streets heading to a categorical track were also packed, according to eyewitnesses.

Police used tear gas, batons as well as gun shots in a air to sunder a crowd. Parliamentnews.ir, a reformist headlines website, pronounced a 20-year-old nephew of Mir-Hossein Moussavi, a antithesis leader, was between a dead.

. The inform could not be independently reliable as well as a comparison Iranian police official denied a report.

So distant there have been no reports of killings as well as no a single has been killed up to now, Tehran police arch Azizollah Rajabzadeh told a headlines group ISNA.

Security forces were in control of a central Tehran in a afternoon with protesters largely dispersed. Ruins of a little motorcycles as well as cars, broken windows as well as fences were still visible in a streets.

The Sunday convene was a biggest given Jun 20, a bloodiest day when during slightest 10 people were killed. After which situation criticism numbers shrank from hundreds of thousands to thousands.

The street protests proposed after a doubtful presidential choosing upon Jun 12. President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad claimed feat in a landslide. Mir-Hossein Moussavi, a tip reformist candidate as well as right away a antithesis leader, rejected a results as fraudulent.

There were hardly any slogans upon Sunday opposite a government of Mr Ahmadi-Nejad. Rather Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a autarchic personality who has sided with a fundamentalist boss as well as has a final contend in state affairs, was a categorical target.

Death to a dictator, Death to Khamenei, as well as God is Great were between a slogans of a opposition.

Demonstrators also threw stones during armed confidence forces, a doctrine they have learnt from Palestinians in their fight opposite Israelis.

The reason Ashura was selected for another vital convene is partly given of a truth of Shia Muslims, who honour it as a day blood won over sword as well as Imam Hossein fought opposite misapplication in his time. He was killed by Yazid, a woman monarch during a time.

This month is a month of blood, Yazid will be overthrown, was a single of a tip slogans.

Using Ashura opposite rulers was also experienced during a Islamic revolution as a antithesis has borrowed most slogans as well as black of its fight opposite a Shah 30 years ago.

The overthrow of Imam Hossein was given he longed for to give his hold up for leisure as well as he fought with those who longed for to order over their society underneath a name of religion while depriving people of their freedom, pronounced Mohammad Khatami, former reformist president, upon Saturday evening. This was his final sentence prior to his opponents broke a windows as well as did not concede him to continue.

Mr Khatamis debate was during Jamaran, where a domicile of late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a founder of 1979 revolution, still live as well as have in a roundabout way backed a opposition. Thousands of people gathered outside Jamaran upon Saturday night as well as chanted anti-regime slogans.

Meanwhile, a death of Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, a most comparison dissident minister final Sunday, fuelled a disturbance as well as has given then led to demonstrations in Tehran, a holy city of Qom, Isfahan as well as Najafabad, his birthplace which is tighten to Isfahan.

There were also unconfirmed reports of tensions in Isfahan as well as Najafabad upon Sunday.

Some demonstrators in Tehran carried pictures of Mr Montazeri. Montazeri, a victim, your path will be continued, they chanted.