Large stretches of the Iranian capital erupted in chaos and violence today as antigovernment protesters and security forces clashed on the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy by radical students.Amateur videotape also purported to show small, boisterous demonstrations in the Caspian Sea city of Rasht, the southwestern city of Ahvaz and the eastern city of Mashhad.
For the first time in months, there were also credible reports and video footage of a sizable demonstration on the campus of the main university in the northwestern city of Tabriz, the capital of Iran's ethnic Azeri region and historically a hotbed of political activity.
As dusk settled, protesters in Tehran continued to gather in the streets and prepare for what they predicted would be a long night of clashes with security forces stationed at main squares around the capital.
"I was beaten up by a baton so badly that one policeman begged his colleague to have pity on me and stop beating me," said one protester, a 54-year-old mother of three who asked that her name not be published. "But I am not scared. I will keep protesting until the end."
Today's demonstration did not appear to be as large as the huge marches that erupted after the disputed June 12 reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But the protest, the largest in six weeks, struck at one of the ideological pillars of the Islamic Republic by showing that a sizable chunk of Iranians disagree with hard-liners' anti-American agenda
Though the demonstration stemmed from the contested election, America's tangled 56-year relationship with Iran took center stage.
As Ahmadinejad's allies blasted U.S. foreign policy during an official rally attended by tens of thousands of schoolchildren bused in the for the event and government supporters, a leading reformist cleric and architect of the Islamic Revolution issued a provocative statement describing the storming of the U.S. mission in Tehran as a mistake.
"Considering the negative repercussions and the high sensitivity which was created among the American people and which still exists, it was not the right thing to do," Ayatollah Hossein Montazeri said in a statement posted to his website.
And as thousands of government supporters and schoolchildren draped in Iranian flags chanted, "Death to America," opposition protesters warned the Obama administration -- which is seeking to engage Iran to defuse a confrontation over Tehran's nuclear program -- that now's not the time for a deal.
"Obama, Obama!" the protesters chanted, according to footage posted on the Internet. "Either you're with them, or with us."
Throughout the day, videotape, photographs and witness accounts surfaced of violent confrontations between paramilitary forces controlled by the hard-line Revolutionary Guard and unarmed demonstrators across the capital. Reformist websites reported the arrests of numerous protesters.
Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets and attempted to surround demonstrators to prevent them from forming large gatherings. Protesters chanted, "Death to the dictator" and "Russia is the den of espionage," playing on the official description of the former U.S. Embassy compound as a "den of espionage."
Moscow is an ally of the Islamic Republic.
Video footage showed black-clad riot police accompanied by plainclothes Basiji militiamen beating protesters with clubs and storming into apartment buildings where they had sought refuge. One witness said he saw soldiers collapsing from tear gas fired at demonstrators, who tried to ward off the effects of the gas by setting trash fires.
Students at Tehran's restive colleges poured into the streets, reformist news websites reported, in defiance of security forces stationed at campus entrances. One witness spotted crowds of more than 2,000 in several Tehran locations. The crowd cheered as opposition presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi arrived at 7th of Tir Square to attend the rally.
Traditionally, the anniversary of the embassy takeover is used by the government to whip up anti-American furor, which buses in students at public grammar schools to participate. State television showed thousands of mostly schoolchildren carrying placards and chanting, "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" near the site of the former embassy. The building was turned into a museum in the years after the takeover and subsequent detention of U.S. personnel as hostages severed ties between Tehran and Washington.