Iran police clash with protesters

The clashes took place when people started to use Shiite processions as protests against the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iranian police clashed Saturday with protesters and arrested several people trying to stage an anti-government demonstration during a Shiite mourning event in Tehran, an AFP correspondent said.

The clashes took place as the authorities warned of a crackdown on attempts to use Shiite processions marking the solemn Ashura rituals to stage fresh protests against the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Police dispersed about 200 to 300 people who tried to gather in Enghelab square in central Tehran, the correspondent said, adding some protesters were beaten up and several were arrested.

The protesters had been shouting slogans such as "death to the dictator."

Small groups of people also gathered around the nearby Tehran university -- a hotbed of anti-government protests -- with some shouting slogans and at least two people were seen arrested.

A witness told AFP that police had fired tear gas at Enghelab square to break up the crowd, but the claim could not be independently verified.

Hundreds of riot police were deployed in key areas of central Tehran Saturday and especially along the main Enghelab street.

Opposition website Rahesabz.net reported clashes at several points along Enghelab street, a main thoroughfare where hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters had staged protest marches in the wake of the disputed June presidential election.

The website also said security forces broke into a building housing the offices of the ISNA news agency after protesters they were chasing took refuge there. ISNA has not yet commented on the report.

An elderly woman travelling on a city bus in the area was heard urging passengers to chant slogans such as "Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein" in support of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, a witness said.

Former premier Mousavi ran in the June 12 poll, which he charged was massively rigged in favour of Ahmadinejad to keep the hardliner in power.

Chants of "Ya Hossein" are common during Ashura when the faithful congregate in mosques or march in street processions beating their chest in mourning for the martyred Shiite imam.

The witness said passengers on the packed bus also chanted "Our Neda is not dead, it is the government which is dead," referring to protester Neda Agha Soltan, who bled to death during a June 20 protest in shocking scenes caught on video and viewed by millions around the world.

Iran police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam had issued a fresh warning Saturday against attempts to use Shiite processions as a means to stage fresh protests against the government.

"Police will severely crack down on rioters. We will identify and arrest riot leaders," he was quoted as saying by ISNA.

Ahmadinejad's opponents have increasingly used a series of major public events supported by the authorities to mount protests, many of which have ended in clashes with police.

The 10-day Ashura ceremonies, which climax on Sunday, commemorate the death of Imam Hussein, one of Shiite Islam's most revered figures, at the hands of the armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680 AD.

The ceremonies are marked in Shiite majority countries such as Iran and Iraq by processions in which mainly young men flagellate their bare backs with chains, as well as by mass gatherings of devotees chanting the praises of Imam Hussein.

The rituals gather momentum on Saturday and culminate on Sunday in crowded mourning ceremonies at mosques and in public places.

Tension rose in Iran this week after the death of top dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who was a vocal backer of the opposition.

Hundreds of thousands attended his funeral, effectively turning the event into an opposition demonstration. Police clashed with his mourners in several cities as the authorities reportedly banned further memorials for the cleric. bur/bpz