Violence in Tehran, Suicide Bomber at Ayatollah’s Tomb
Iranian protesters are being attacked by riot police in Tehran today, as the mullahs’ violent crackdown on dissent continues: Riot police clash with protesters in Tehran
Police used tear gas, water cannons and batons Saturday to disperse thousands of protesters rallying in the central part of Iran’s capital to demand a new presidential election, witnesses said.
They said about 100 people were hurt after riot police charged the crowd of nearly 3,000 in Tehran’s Revolution Square and began beating demonstrators. Amateur video taken in the area showed a fiery barricade that protesters put up to block police.
There are also reports that opposition supporters set fire to a building used by backers of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Canadian freelance journalist George McLeod, one of the few foreign reporters remaining in the country, told CBC News he saw fires burning in the streets and heard small explosions. “Tehran is quickly becoming very violent. There are protests all over the city,” he said. “I saw three people being carried into ambulances. One had a head wound, the other seemed semi-unconscious. I don’t know whether they were protesters, security forces or bystanders.”
And we also have a strange report of a suicide bomber at the Ayatollah Khomeini’s tomb:
Elsewhere in the Iranian capital on Saturday, there were reports that a suicide bomber blew himself up at the mausoleum of the father of Iran’s revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
State media in Iran said two people were wounded in the incident in the northern wing of the shrine.
Frank says: