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Iran’s state radio reported that clashes in the Iranian capital the previous night left seven people dead after an “unauthorized gathering” following a mass rally over alleged election fraud.
The seven were killed in shooting that erupted after protesters in western Tehran “tried to attack a military location,” the radio said, providing no details.
It was the first official confirmation of Monday’s fatalities in Tehran’s Azadi Square, where witnesses had seen at least one person shot dead and several others seriously wounded by gunfire from a compound for volunteer militia linked to Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard.
VIDEO: Basiji (Paramilitary force) opening fire on Tehran demonstrators
Previous headline: Gunfire Erupted at Major Opposition Rally in Tehran
PRESS TV reporter says the shooting in Tehran happened in Azadi Square, killing at least 1 person and causing panic.
URGENT — Iranian state TV says gunfire has erupted at the pro-Mousavi rally in Tehran where hundreds of thousands of people were protesting.
Huge pro-reform rally defies crackdown threats
(The Independent) – Many tens of thousands of Iranians chanted support for Mirhossein Mousavi in Tehran today after a presidential election they say was stolen from him and handed to the hardline incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest), they converged on Revolution Square, where Mousavi addressed a small part of the crowd through a loud hailer and held his fists clenched above his head, in a sign of victory, after two days of the capital’s most violent unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Supporters stretching along several kilometres of a Tehran boulevard waved green flags, Mousavi’s campaign colours, and held portraits of him aloft as they tried to take pictures on their cellphones – even though his words could not be heard above the noise of the crowd.
Iran’s state television said Mousavi, looking smiling and relaxed in a striped shirt, had said he was ready in case the election was re-run.
“Mousavi, take back our votes,” the marchers chanted before Mousavi appeared, along with other pro-reform leaders who backed his call for Friday’s election result to be overturned.
Apparently there is a full-blown power struggle amongst the Iranian clergy, Supreme Leader Ayatolla Ali Khamenei is moving away from support for president Ahmadinejad.
[No source yet to confirm trustworthy reports from radio correspondents in Iran – Oui]
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(AP) – TEHRAN, Iran – Gunfire from a compound used by pro-government militia killed one demonstrator after hundreds of thousands of opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad massed in central Tehran to cheer their pro-reform leader in his first public appearance since elections that he alleges were marred by fraud.
A group of demonstrators with fuel canisters attempted to set fire to the compound of a volunteer militia linked to Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard as the crowd dispersed from Azadi (Freedom) Square after dark. As some attempted to storm the building, people inside could be seen firing directly at the demonstrators at the northern edge of the square, away from the heart of the demonstration.
An Associated Press photographer saw one person fatally shot and several others who appeared to be seriously wounded.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."from iranian students twitter
there is no need to hide their names anymore Mobina Ehtrami, Fateme Borati, Kasra Sharafi, Kambiz Shoaee & Mohsen Imani; all killed by ansar
http://twitter.com/Change_for_Iran
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In an exclusive interview with Radio Farda, Iranian reformist cleric Hassan Yusefi Eshkevari has spoken out following the government’s announcement of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s election victory. He was interviewed by telephone from his home in Tehran by Elaheh Ravanshad.
Radio Farda: What is your reaction to the official election result?
Hassan Yusefi Eshkevari: It seems that what has happened in Iran is a punishment for the people. People, including young Iranians, took to the streets and showed their maturity and their wish for peace and goodwill. That’s one issue. The other issue is that the establishment seems to fear democracy, and because of that it held an election coup d’etat to take its revenge on the people, especially on the youth.
Radio Farda: What surprised you most about the official result?
Yusefi Eshkevari: The election result is not understandable by any logic because if Ahmadinejad was supposed to have 62 percent of the vote, there would have not been so many protests and so many efforts to replace him. Especially in the past month, all of Iran was calling in a united voice: We want to change [him] and we don’t want him [as president].
…
The majority of people didn’t want Ahmadinejad to win, but it wasn’t only that. In recent days it became clear that Ahmadinejad had serious opponents even inside the leadership, among his fellow traditionalists. The damage of what has happened here, will be more apparent and more severe in future; it has caused more damage to Iran’s political system than Musavi’s victory would have.
[The high level of protests on the streets in a number of cities has surpassed this cleric’s expectations – Oui]
We’ve then got the Presidential Office’s eligible voters by region data so we can work out what the turnout as in each case. Whether you believe over 99% turnouts anywhere is one thing, but this data is only the beginning.
There are other versions of this stuff out there – Fivethirtyeight.com has visualised these figures as a map, while Iran Tracker has another set.
Polling Data Before Iranian Election
≈ Cross-posted from BooMan’s fp diary — On Grand Ayatollahs and Their Pronouncements ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
(The Independent/ABC News) By Robert Fisk – There were about 10,000 Mousavi men and women on the streets, with approximately 500 Iranian special forces, trying to keep them apart.
It was interesting that the special forces – who normally take the side of Ahmadinejad’s Basij militia – were there with clubs and sticks in their camouflage trousers and their purity white shirts and on this occasion the Iranian military kept them away from Mousavi’s men and women.
In fact at one point, Mousavi’s supporters were shouting ‘thank you, thank you’ to the soldiers.
One woman went up to the special forces men, who normally are very brutal with Mr Mousavi’s supporters, and said ‘can you protect us from the Basij?’ He said ‘with God’s help’.
[Also the battle cry of the Mousavi supporters – Oui]
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
Read BooMan’s fp diary – What to Make of Terror Free Tomorrow’s Poll
As a prelude, Mousavi has already bypassed the Supreme Leader, sending an open letter to the powerful mullahcracy in Qom asking them to invalidate the election. Hojjatoleslam Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, head of the election vote-monitoring committee, has officially requested that the Council of Guardians void the election and schedule a new, fully monitored one.
One of the stalwarts of Qom power, the moderate Grand Ayatollah Sanei, who had issued a fatwa against vote rigging, calling it a “mortal sin”, has already declared the Ahmadinejad presidency “illegitimate”. His house and office are now under police siege. Iranians eagerly expect a public pronouncement from Grand Ayatollah Muntazeri, the country’s true top religious figure (not Khamenei) and a certified anti-ultra-right wing.
Even more strikingly, a group of Ministry of Interior employees sent an open letter to the chairman of the Council of Experts (Rafsanjani), the president of the parliament (Majlis), former nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, the heads of the legislative and the judiciary, and many other government agencies. The crucial paragraph reads: “As dedicated employees of the Ministry of Interior, with experience in management and supervision of several elections such as the elections of Khamenei, Rafsanjani and Khatami, we announce that we fear the 10th presidential elections were not healthy.”
The Islamic Combatant Clergy Association (ICCA), close to Khatami and supportive of Mousavi, said on its website that the counting process was “widely engineered [manipulated]”, and there was enough evidence to prove it. So for the ICCA, the election should be nullified.
Mohsen Rezai, who ran as a conservative and who is nothing less than a former head of the IRGC, also sent a letter to the Council of Guardians saying the election was illegitimate.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."