Iranian militiamen attack opposition leader’s home

PRO-GOVERNMENT militiamen attacked the home of an Iranian opposition leader with homemade bombs and beat one of his bodyguards unconscious, an opposition website reported, in an apparent attempt to keep him from attending a key rally yesterday.

Mahdi Karroubi’s guards had to fire gunshots in the air to clear crowds that broke down the door of his home on Thursday night after days of gatherings outside, said the Sahamnews website, which supports Iran’s pro-reform movement. The report said the attackers were members of the plainclothes Basij militia, which led the crackdown on protests that swept the country in response to allegations of fraud in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s June 2009 re-election.

Karroubi was one of the pro-reform candidates who ran against Ahmadinejad.