http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1094502.html
Last update - 08:20 21/06/2009
Report: At least 19 killed in Iran protests
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies
Tags: Israel News, Ahmadinejad
At least 19 people were killed in Iran on Saturday, CNN quoted a Tehran
hospital source as saying, as thousands of protesters marched on waiting
security forces that fought back with baton charges, tear gas and water
cannons.
CNN also cited unconfirmed reports as putting the death toll as 150 on
the seventh day of post-election protests, which took place in defiance of the
Islamic Republic's highest authority.
Witnesses said 2,000 to 3,000 were on the streets, fewer than the
hundreds of thousands earlier in the week, but a clear challenge to Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who used his sermon Friday to endorse disputed
election results that gave hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a landslide
victory.
Many of the protesters, wearing black, chanted "Death to the dictator!"
and "Death to dictatorship!" near Revolution Square in downtown Tehran, setting
off fierce clashes with police.
Iran's state television, meanwhile, reported Sunday that the Islamic
Republic has arrested members of an exiled opposition group it accused of
"terrorist activities" including setting buses on fire and destroying public
property.
The report, which did not directly mention the election or the unrest,
said the arrested members of the Mujahideen Khalq Organisation had entered Iran
after receiving training in neighbouring Iraq. It said they were guided by the
group's "operation room" in Britain.
"Leaders of this group had encouraged members to carry out terrorist
activities such as setting buses and gas stations on fire and attacking Basijis
[Islamic militiamen] and destroying public property," state television said.
It did not say how many people were arrested or when.
Report: Suicide bomber attacks Khomeini shrine
In a separate incident, a state-run television channel reported that a
suicide bombing at the shrine of the Islamic Revolution leader Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini killed at least two people and wounded eight. The report
could be not independently evaluated due to government restrictions on
journalists.
Also Saturday, Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi declared he
is "ready for martyrdom," according to aides, as he called on his supporters to
continue protesting despite warnings by Khamenei that violations of the law
will result in bloodshed.
On his Web site, Mousavi also called for a national strike if he is
arrested. In a letter to Iran's Guardian Council, which is investigating
voting-fraud allegations in the June 12 presidential election, he said some
ballot boxes had been sealed before voting began.
He also said thousands of his representatives had been expelled from
polling stations and some mobile polling stations had boxes filled with fake
ballots.
The council, Iran's highest legislative body, said Saturday it was ready
to recount a random 10 percent of the votes cast in the June 12 poll to meet
the complaints of Mousavi and two other candidates who lost to Ahmadinejad.
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