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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran opposition defy crackdown & stage protests |
| 2009-12-08 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Iranian police fired tear gas and warning shots in the air on Monday at protesters gathered in central Tehran chanting slogans against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, witnesses said, as the nation marked Students Day. Witnesses reported clashes between protesters, mainly university students, and policemen at several universities and prominent districts of Tehran, which was flooded with security force members who arrested several demonstrators. "Police fired tear gas at groups of protesters chanting slogans against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Vali Asr intersection and Enghelab Street," a witness told AFP, referring to prominent locations in central Tehran. The protesters were chanting "Death to the Dictator" and "Do not be scared. We are all together," the witness said, adding that some protesters also beat up a policeman. The incidents could not be independently verified as foreign media have been banned from covering Monday's event. Students of Tehran's prestigious Amir Kabir University had earlier urged protests against Ahmadinejad, in an online statement. "We are asking all people to come to universities so we can have one voice to protest at the coup d'état," said the statement, issued by the group going under the name "Green university students of Iranian universities." Green was the signature color of main opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi's election campaign for the June 12 presidential poll. He lost to Ahmadinejad in what he claims was a "fraudulent" election staged to return the hardliner to power. Since then his supporters have taken to streets in Tehran at the slightest opportunity to demonstrate against Ahmadinejad, accusing him of "stealing their votes." Hundreds of thousands of protesters poured onto streets in the immediate aftermath of the poll and in the deadly unrest that followed dozens were killed and thousands arrested. The defiant protests shook the pillars of the Iranian regime in what was one of its worst crises since the 1979 Islamic revolution. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Faster, Please. |
| Posted by: Black Bart Ebberens7700 2009-12-08 09:06 |
| #1 The internet felt it too. |
| Posted by: newc 2009-12-08 00:31 |