Police arrest government critics in Tehran

Two prominent critics of the Iranian government have been arrested after clashes overnight in Tehran.

Iranian state television said 15 people were killed in the worst violence since the disputed presidential election in June.

Witnesses say police fired tear gas to break up crowds of anti-government demonstrators.

The Obama administration offered its support today to victims of the crackdown.

In a scathing attack on Tehran, the US backed civilians “seeking to exercise their universal rights”.

National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer condemned the “unjust suppression of civilians” in a crackdown that has killed at least five people, including a nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

“Governing through fear and violence is never just,” Mr Hammer said.

He quoted President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, saying “it is telling when governments fear the aspirations of their own people more than the power of any other nation”.

Witnesses and opposition websites said Iranian security forces fired on stone-throwing protesters in the centre of Iran’s capital yesterday.

The protests began with thousands of opposition supporters chanting “Death to the dictator”, a reference to hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as they marched in defiance of official warnings of a harsh crackdown on any demonstrations coinciding with Shiite Islam’s most important observance, Ashoura.

The observance commemorates the seventh-century death in battle of one of Shiite Islam’s most beloved saints.

Security forces tried but failed to disperse protesters on a central Tehran street with tear gas, baton charges and warning shots.

They then opened fire on protesters, said witnesses and the Rah-e-Sabz website.

Some accounts of the violence in Tehran were vivid and detailed, but they could not be independently confirmed because of government restrictions on media coverage.

Police, who denied using firearms, said dozens of officers were injured and more than 300 protesters were arrested.

The clashes are sure to deepen antagonism between the government and a reform movement that has shown resilience in the face of repeated crackdowns.

Many demonstrators had not anticipated such harsh tactics by the authorities, despite police warnings of tougher action against any protests on the sacred day.

Amateur video footage purportedly from the centre of Tehran showed an enraged crowd carrying away one casualty, chanting, “I’ll kill, I’ll kill the one who killed my brother”.

In several locations, demonstrators confronted security forces, hurling stones and setting their motorcycles, cars and vans ablaze, according to video footage and pro-reform websites.

Protesters tried to cut off roads with burning barricades. One police officer was photographed with blood streaming down his face after he was set upon by the crowd.

There were unconfirmed reports that four people died in protests in Tabriz in north-west Iran, the Rah-e-Sabz website said. Fierce clashes also broke out in Isfahan and Najafabad in central Iran and Shiraz in the south, it said.