Scuffles mar funeral of murdered scientist Dr Masoud Ali-Mohammadi

SUPPORTERS of Iran's regime yesterday hijacked the funeral of a nuclear scientist killed in a mysterious bomb attack as it sought to bolster its claim that he was murdered by foreign agents.

Hundreds of government loyalists surrounded Masoud Ali-Mohammadi's body as it was carried from his home in northern Tehran.

State-controlled television showed them waving Iranian flags and chanting anti-American and antiIsraeli slogans.

Opposition websites reported scuffles between security forces and members of the so-called Green Movement, who also turned up to mourn but were held back. They believe that the regime killed Dr Ali-Mohammadi, on Tuesday because he had switched his allegiance to Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition leader.

Unconfirmed reports claimed that security forces kept Dr Ali-Mohammadi's family away from the body. The regime has spent the past three days vigorously promoting the story that Dr Ali-Mohammadi, 50, was killed by foreign enemies with the help of Iranian "mercenaries".

President Ahmadinejad described the scientist yesterday as a "Hezbollahi (regime loyalist) and pious university professor serving his people" and claimed that he was assassinated in "Zionist" style.

On Wednesday Ali Larijani, the parliamentary speaker, blamed America and Israel for the attack. "We had clear information that the intelligence apparatus of the Zionist regime and the CIA wanted to implement terrorist acts," he said.

However, the regime's narrative is undermined by the lack of any evidence that Dr Ali-Mohammadi was contributing to Iran's nuclear programme, as well as by his declared support for the opposition. Dr Ali-Mohammadi, who taught at Tehran University, specialised in particle physics and was not known to Western officials or agencies which monitor Iran's nuclear programme.

He was one of 420 academics who signed a statement of support for Mr Mousavi during the presidential election campaign last June.

Two former presidents, the reformist Mohammed Khatami and Hashemi Rafsanjani, have issued statements calling Tuesday's bombing an act of terrorism - but by not blaming Israel or America they gave the clear impression that they were blaming the regime.

The Australian

Deadly Protests Break Out in Iran

Iranian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters in the capital Sunday, killing at least four people in the fiercest clashes in months, opposition Web sites and witnesses said.

Thousands of opposition supporters chanting "Death to the dictator," a reference to hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, defied official warnings of a harsh crackdown on any protests coinciding with a religious observance on Sunday. Iranians were marking Ashoura, commemorating the seventh-century death in battle of one of Shiite Islam's most beloved saints.

Security forces tried but failed to disperse protesters on a central Tehran street with tear gas, charges by baton-wielding officers and warning shots fired into the air. They then opened fire directly at protesters, killing at least three people, said witnesses and the pro-reform Web site Rah-e-Sabz.

Witnesses said one of the victims was an elderly man who had a gunshot wound to the forehead. He was seen being carried away by opposition supporters with blood covering his face.

The clashes marked the bloodiest confrontation between protesters and security forces since the height of the unrest in the weeks after June's disputed presidential election. The opposition says Ahmadinejad won the June election through massive vote fraud and that its leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, was the true winner.

Reporters from foreign media organizations were barred from covering the demonstrations on Tehran's central Engelab Street, or Revolution Street, and the reports of deaths could not be independently confirmed. Ambulance sirens could be heard near the site of the protests.

The witnesses and opposition Web site said angry protesters threw stones at security forces and set dozens of their motorbikes on fire. Police helicopters circled overhead as clouds of black smoke billowed into the sky over the capital.

Police had blocked streets leading to the center of the capital to try to prevent thousands of people from joining the protest. Still, many opposition supporters managed to break the security wall.

Fierce clashes also broke out Sunday between security forces and opposition supporters in the cities of Isfahan and Najafabad in central Iran, the Rah-e-Sabz Web site said.

Cell phone services were down and Internet connections were slowed to a crawl, as has happened during most other days of opposition protest in an apparent government attempt to limit attention on the events.

Opposition activists have held a series of anti-government protests since the death of a dissident cleric last week.

The Dec. 20 death of the 87-year-old Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a sharp critic of Iran's leaders, has given a new push to opposition protests, which have endured despite a heavy security crackdown since the election.

His memorials have brought out not only the young, urban activists who filled the ranks of earlier protests, but also older, more religious Iranians who revered Montazeri on grounds of faith as much as politics. Tens of thousands marched in his funeral procession in the holy city of Qom on Monday, many chanting slogans against the government.

Iran's police chief, Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, had threatened tougher action against protesters on Sunday should they hold rallies.

Opposition leaders have used holidays and other symbolic days in recent months to stage anti-government rallies.

About 50 plainclothes hard-liners disrupted a speech by former reformist President Mohammad Khatami Saturday evening, attacking and injuring several of those who attended the speech, according to the pro-reform Web site www.salaamnews.ir.

The attackers chanted slogans in support of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, it said.

Khatami was speaking at the former residence of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of Iran's 1979 revolution, in north Tehran on the occasion of the Ashoura holiday.

FoxNews

Ahmadinejad faces test of strength as fresh protests sweep Iran

The Islamic Republic has seldom seen such scenes.

President Ahmadinejad had to cut short an interview on state-controlled television because chants of “Ahmadi! Ahmadi! Resign! Resign!” could clearly be heard in the background.

After two quiescent summer months, huge new protests erupted across Iran yesterday, with popular anger at the alleged theft of June’s presidential election inflamed by the subsequent killing, torture, rape and show trials of opponents of the regime.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, 68, the former Prime Minister and de facto opposition leader, had to abandon plans to join the huge anti-government demonstrations in Tehran when hardliners attacked him and his car.

Ayatollah Khatami, 65, a popular former President who supports the opposition, was knocked to the ground, had his robe ripped and lost his cleric’s turban — a black garment signifying that he is a sayyid, or descendant of the Prophet.

In Tehran and other cities, tens of thousands of demonstrators hijacked Iran’s annual al-Quds Day rallies in support of the Palestinian cause and turned them into protests against the oppression of Iranians.

The security forces hit back with teargas and baton charges. There were violent confrontations between government and opposition supporters in the squares and avenues of central Tehran and numerous reports of arrests and injuries.

In an address to the Friday prayers gathering in Tehran, Mr Ahmadinejad caused international outrage by again dismissing the Holocaust as a myth and claiming that the regime in Israel was collapsing. Yesterday’s turmoil, however, suggested that his regime was the one in trouble.

There had been no major demonstrations since July 17 but the Government could hardly cancel al-Quds Day, an event initiated by Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, and the opposition seized its chance.

Its supporters turned out in huge numbers and paralysed the centre of Tehran; estimates of the turnout ranged from 100,000 to 500,000. They were young and old, male and female, rich and poor, and came with green wristbands, T-shirts, balloons and banners to show support for Mr Mousavi’s green movement.

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Source: Times Online