6:26pm UK, Tuesday July 21, 2009

http://iranian-americans.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

Iranian riot police have clashed with hundreds of pro-reform protesters in central Tehran and detained dozens, a witness said, in the latest unrest over June’s disputed election.

The witness said demonstrators were chanting slogans against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the government, including: “Ahmadinejad — resign, resign” and “Death to dictators”.

The Reuters news agency quoted the witness as saying the police beat protesters who had gathered in Tehran’s Haft-e Tir square in defiance of a ban on such demonstrations following the election, which the opposition says was rigged in favour of Ahmadinejad.

“Riot police are taking dozens of protesters into their cars and they are taking them away,” the witness said.

“There are hundreds of riot police and plainclothes (security forces), beating people who gathered to support (opposition leader Mirhossein) Mousavi.”

Tweets posted on Twitter, which cannot be verified, suggested that around 10,000 people were involved in the demonstrations in four main areas of central Tehran: “Vali Asr; 7 Tir; Coledge Sq; Baharestan”.

One tweet said: “A young lad with a phone nr Cinema was grabbed by security. Crowd freed him while fighting off teargas attacks.

“As the crowd gathered near the cinema, guards showed force by beating an elderly person, crowd came to rescue.”

The clash erupted four days after similar confrontations between police and protesters for the first time in weeks on Friday after former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani declared the Islamic Republic in crisis and said there were doubts about the election result.

The authorities reject opposition charges of vote rigging.

The election stirred the most striking display of internal unrest in Iran, the world’s fifth biggest oil exporter, since the 1979 revolution and exposed deep rifts in its ruling elite.

At least 20 people died in the post-election violence. Mousavi and the authorities blame each other for the bloodshed.