Fierce Tehran clashes between police, protesters

TEHRAN, Iran — Police beat protesters and fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands who rallied Saturday in open defiance of Iran's clerical government, sharply escalating the most serious internal conflict since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran's English-language state TV said as reports of street clashes became public that a suicide bombing at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini south of Tehran had killed one person and wounded eight. The report could be not independently evaluated due to government restrictions on journalists.

Some 3,000 protesters, many wearing black, chanted "Death to the dictator!" and "Death to dictatorship!" near Revolution Square in downtown Tehran, setting off fierce clashes with police firing tear gas, water cannons and guns, witnesses said. It was not clear if police were firing live ammunition.

Some protesters appeared to be fighting back, setting fire to militia members' motorcycles, witnesses said. There were no immediate confirmed reports of fatalities and the head of Iran's police said his men had been ordered to act with restraint.

"We acted with leniency but I think from today on, we should resume law and confront more seriously," Gen. Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghadam said on state television. "We will definitely seriously confront those who violate rules."

After dark, people returned to the rooftops and shouted "Allahu Akbar!" — God is Great — as a show of defiance against the system, a technique borrowed from the days of the revolution.

A massive rally in Tehran's Freedom Square Monday set off three consecutive days of protests demanding the government cancel and rerun June 12 elections that ended with a declaration of overwhelming victory for hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi says he won and Ahmadinejad stole the election through widespread fraud.

Mousavi has not been seen since a rally Thursday, but late Saturday he repeated his demand for the election to be annulled.

In a letter to Iran's Guardian Council, which investigates voting fraud allegations, Mousavi said some ballot boxes had been sealed before voting began. He also said thousands of his representatives had been expelled from polling stations and some mobile polling stations had boxes filled with fake ballots.

"The Iranian nation will not believe this unjust and illegal" act, Mousavi said in the letter on one of his official Web sites.