THE armoured car of one of Iran’s opposition leaders, Mehdi Karroubi, was hit by gunfire in the northern town of Qazvin, his party’s website reported yesterday, but only the windows were damaged.

IRAN has announced that the first trials of post-election protesters will begin this weekend, as anger grew even among some government supporters over abuse of those detained in the more than six-week-old crackdown.

Iran’s hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came under pressure today from a rival who promised to reverse his extremist policies.

IRAN officials yesterday dismissed allegations of vote rigging in the presidential election, clearing the way for a run-off vote.

IRANIAN reformists urged their dejected supporters to rally behind pragmatic cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to prevent hard-line challenger Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from winning a presidential run-off.

Iran will hold the first runoff presidential election in its history between political veteran Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani and Tehran’s hard-line mayor, election officials said today.

MORE than a third of the Iranian parliament resigned yesterday and the speaker delivered a stinging rebuke to the hard-line Guardian Council for its disqualification of hundreds of liberal candidates in upcoming elections.