Iran Protests: Latest Updates and Photos and Videos

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/01/03/iran.protests/index.html

Iranian protester: 'We are not radicals, not against Islam'

January 4, 2010 12:56 a.m. EST

Since June, he has been among thousands to take to the streets of Tehran in support of reform for his country.

He has braved police violence and government reprisals. He has seen fellow opposition supporters felled by the batons and bullets of government security forces.

But this 28-year-old university researcher says he has no choice.

"I'm afraid but ... it's not a good way just to sit at home and do nothing," the protester, who asked to be identified only as "Hesam" for safety reasons, told CNN. "If I want to change the condition, if I want to have a better life, I have to do that. Yes, maybe it's a death wish."

His wish is simple -- a democratic Iran.

"We are -- like it or not -- (becoming) ... a multicultural and multireligious country," he said, calling for the same freedoms common to "most of the democracies of the world."

The anti-government demonstrations began following the disputed June 12 presidential vote, which re-elected hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over main opposition candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi.

Last weekend marked the deadliest clashes since the initial protests broke out this summer. At least seven people were killed and hundreds arrested as they took to the streets on Ashura, a Shiite Muslim holy day. Hesam said he was one of many beaten by police, struck with a baton 11 times.

The Iranian government has denied that its security forces killed anyone and has blamed reformists for the violence. Video has shown protesters apparently turning on security forces, which Hesam says is an emotional reaction to the frustration he and his fellow reformists are feeling.

He says the opposition does not want protesters to turn violent, saying "if the movement gets radicalized, it's in favor of the regime."

Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa-Mohammad Najjar warned Saturday that the government will not show leniency to protesters in the future, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported Sunday.

"(We) have ordered the police force not to show any leniency to rioters from now on, and if a person appears to cooperate with rioters in protests, (they) will be arrested immediately," Mehr quoted Najjar as saying.

Moussavi has said reformist sentiments won't disappear despite government attempts to silence them. He is seeking changes in election laws to make the voting process more transparent, the release of all political prisoners, freedom of the press and for the government to recognize "the legitimate right of the people to congregate legally."

Hesam says he and his friends want the same things.

"We are not radicals, not against Islam," he says. "We care about democracy (and) about what we want in our country."

The issue is gaining attention beyond Iran's borders with democratic leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel denouncing the latest crackdowns on the demonstrations.

More than 100 protesters marched Sunday in Washington as a show of support for the opposition movement. After gathering near the White House, the crowd chanted opposition slogans and waved signs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/02/world/middleeast/02iran.html

Standoff in Iran Deepens With New Show of Force

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Published: January 1, 2010

CAIRO — Iranian authorities sent police officers into the streets to deter protests on Friday as Mir Hussein Moussavi, the principal opposition leader, said in a statement that he did not fear giving his life as “a martyr.”

The continuing show of force in the capital and Mr. Moussavi’s declaration, in which he said that even killing him would not end the unrest, were part of a day of charges, countercharges and warnings from both sides, illustrating the deep divisions that have emerged since Iran’s political crisis began six months ago.

The government and its hard-line supporters continued to rely on force, and the threat of force, to quell protests and demand loyalty, while the opposition refused to back down. There was no indication that compromise was on the agenda.

During Friday Prayer services in the capital, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a fundamentalist cleric who leads the powerful Guardian Council, called protesters “flagrant examples of the corrupt on Earth” and effectively urged that they be executed as “in the early days of the revolution.”

Mr. Moussavi issued a statement on his Web site, kaleme.org, that took a broad swipe at the government for its use of force against civilian protesters. It also criticized the government’s handling of the economy and foreign policy and its failure to address institutional corruption.

Mr. Moussavi offered a prescription for the government to restore its lost legitimacy, calling for the release of political prisoners and the repair of electoral laws, as well as freedom of expression, assembly and the press.

Then he directly addressed those who in recent days called for him to be arrested and executed, along with other opposition leaders, like Mehdi Karroubi, the cleric and former Parliament speaker.

“I’m not afraid of being one of the post-election martyrs who lost their lives in their struggle for their rightful demands,” he said in the statement. “My blood is no different from that of other martyrs.”

But Mr. Moussavi also acknowledged what had become increasingly evident during recent events, that neither he nor Mr. Karroubi was actually in charge. Presenting himself as more of an analyst than a participant, Mr. Moussavi framed Iran’s internal conflict as one between the leadership and the people. It was a tactical move that apparently sought to take the opposition’s weakness — its lack of organization and leadership — and present it as a strength.

“I say openly that orders to execute, kill or imprison Karroubi and Moussavi will not solve the problem,” he said.

Mr. Moussavi’s nephew, Ali Moussavi, was killed during clashes on Sunday in what the opposition says was a government-sanctioned assassination.

The nephew was buried Wednesday in Behesht-eh Zahra cemetery in Tehran amid tight security in which phones were jammed and plainclothes agents mingled with mourners, according to the Rouydad News Web site.

Iran has been locked in conflict since its disputed presidential election in June, when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared a landslide victory. That led to widespread protests charging fraud, and the government responded with a crackdown. Since then, Iran has been caught in an increasingly hostile stalemate.

“The reform movement won’t die, but it also can’t unite,” said an Iran expert who said he needed to remain anonymous to maintain relations with officials inside Iran. “The regime retains control, but can’t put out the opposition. So it’s a seesaw battle.”

Both sides have stuck with established strategies. The opposition continues to take advantage of public holidays and religious observances as an opportunity to protest. The government, meanwhile, has tried to transform itself into a more efficient police state with efforts to professionalize the pro-government Basij militia, for example.

Last Sunday,

http://www.vindy.com/news/2010/jan/02/iran8217s-dictators-make-shah-look-like-a/

Iran’s dictators make Shah look like a benevolent despot

http://samuelatgilgal.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/lane-iran_nuclear_po.jpg

"It is hard to miss the irony of the son of the late Shah of Iran calling for the world to rain approbation on today’s brutal Iranian dictators.

Iran is what it is today because of an uprising against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in February 1979. His fall ended a reign of 37 years that saw the emergence of a largely secular, Westernized Iran in which women were as free as anywhere in the Middle East, and far more free than in most countries. But the shah’s ties to the West, his marginalizing of the mullahs and his obscenely opulent lifestyle created a resentment that could be contained only by his brutal secret police, the SAVAK, and only for so long.

The revolution that drove the shah from the throne also returned Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini from exile and gave him near absolute power. It drove the United States out by attacking its embassy and holding its diplomats hostage. And it has shown itself capable of being just as brutal as the shah in attempting to preserve power for Khomeini’s successors.

The aristocracy has been replaced by a theocracy that considers the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei answerable only to God and a civil government headed by an evil loon, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who stole the last election. That’s a dangerous combination, made more dangerous by tens of thousands of religious fanatics who are intent on seeing Iran remain an Islamic dictatorship.

Brutal reaction

The pro-democracy rallies that emerged from public discontent following Ahmadinejad’s rigged election have been brutally suppressed by the government. They are now being met with a dangerous reaction from hard-liners who are calling for the execution of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and those who demonstrate in support of him. This comes after at least eight people died during anti-government protests on Sunday, including Mousavi’s nephew.

Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed shah of Iran, has called on U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to launch an investigation into human- rights violations during the unrest. He also urged other nations to withdraw their ambassadors from Tehran in protest of the violence against demonstrators.

Whether the U.N. and Western nations respond will say something about the value they place on supporting freedom. But regardless of what the West says, the response of the regime in Iran is predictable.

Rulers who came to power through revolution are prepared to crush any uprising that threatens them with far more brutality than they faced when they were the outside demonstrators.

While it is important for the demonstrators in Tehran to maintain their independence — the United States, for instance would do them no favors by injecting itself into Iranian politics — the United Nations dare not be silent while Iranian dissidents are slaughtered.

Western nations, many of which sided with Islamic revolutionaries against a monarch in Iran a generation ago, are now being challenged to recognize that the new dictators are worse than the old."

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/01/201011133930845897.html

Al Jazeera English

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/01/01/iran.moussavi/

Mir Hossein Moussavi, the reformist Iranian politician who failed to unseat President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June election, raged Friday against government efforts to stifle protesters.

Moussavi had addressed anti-government demonstrations Sunday in which at least seven protesters were killed, and warned that reformist sentiments won't disappear despite government attempts to silence them.

The Iranian government denies that any of the deaths were caused by official security forces, but the clashes -- depicted in sometimes grainy and shaky amateur videos that show a number of protesters with serious and possibly fatal injuries, including some with apparent gunshot wounds -- appear to tell a different story.

In one video -- shot Sunday, according to the posting on the Web site YouTube -- green-and-white police trucks speed into crowds of demonstrators in Tehran. Most of the protesters attempt to scatter, but one truck drives into a group trapped in a narrow street.

As the truck backs away, one person can be seen crumpled in the street where it had been. When the camera returns to the spot, another truck drives over the person, whose fate is unclear.

CNN cannot independently verify the validity of the videos.

Friday's statement from Moussavi, posted on his Kaleme.org Web site, was the first since Sunday, when his nephew was killed in protests.

The protests -- on the Shiite Muslim holy day Ashura -- were the deadliest since opposition Iranians took to the streets after the disputed June 12 presidential election. At least eight people were killed during those protests.

"Yours truly and friends are still being told that 'If you don't issue announcements, the people will not take to the streets and will stop demonstrating, making the return of calm and stability possible throughout the country,' " Moussavi said.

"I do not agree with these opinions, and I think that until such time that the needed reforms ... can be extricated from the constitution ... what has been lost will not be restored," he added.

"I have no fear of being one of the martyrs that the people of this nation have offered, on the path of reaching their religious and national rights, and my blood will not be any redder than the blood of the other martyrs," Moussavi said. "Until a crisis is recognized as such, there will be no way to resolve it."

Moussavi seeks changes in election laws to make the voting process more transparent, the release of all political prisoners, freedom of the press and for the government to recognize "the legitimate right of the people to congregate legally."

Ayatollah Resaei, a conservative member of Iran's parliament, told state-run media Friday that Moussavi had shown in his comments that he accepted responsibility for the violence last Sunday.

"When he maintains that 'even if I don't issue a statement, the people will take to the streets regardless,' this shows that even before Ashura, those people took to the streets based on his statements.

"Moussavi has thereby accepted that he has issued statements even before this, based on which people took to the streets. On Ashura, he did not issue a statement, and they took to the streets anyway! Moussavi has thereby accepted full responsibility," Resaei said in a statement.

Resaei, former commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, accused Moussavi and reformist politicians Mohammad Khatami and Mehdi Karrubi of doing the bidding of enemies of Iran, and are therefore "domestic pawns" of foreigners. He named no nations.

"So if the authorities do not adhere to their duties [to arrest and prosecute them], the revolutionary people [of Iran] will execute the will of the Imam [Khomeini] to the fullest," Resaei said, referring to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Republic of Iran in 1979.

January 2, 2010
'I am not afraid of martyrdom,' Iran opposition leader Mousavi declares

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6973499.ece

The Iranian opposition leader responded to demands for his arrest and execution yesterday by saying that he was ready for martyrdom.

At the end of a week in which his nephew was killed, top aides were arrested and regime supporters demanded his death for sedition, Mir Hossein Mousavi declared: “I’m not afraid to be one of the people’s martyrs in their struggle for their just demands.”

Referring to the scores of opposition activists killed by security forces since June’s disputed presidential election, Mr Mousavi added: “My blood is no redder than theirs.”

In an unusually outspoken statement on his website, Mr Mousavi, defeated by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in what his supporters insist was a rigged election, denounced the Government’s violent crackdown and insisted that restoring civil liberties was the only way to resolve the “crisis” facing Iran.

Quoting Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, he said that murdering protesters would only strengthen the opposition’s resolve: “Kill us, we will only become stronger.”

Mr Mousavi has faced intense pressure in recent days to call off seven months of civil disobedience by the so-called Green movement.

His nephew, Seyed Ali Mousavi, was shot dead during massive demonstrations last Sunday in what opposition activists believe was an attempt to silence his uncle. He had already been fired as head of Iran’s Academy of Arts. This week the regime has arrested scores of prominent reformists, including three of Mr Mousavi’s top aides and his brother-in-law.

On Wednesday state-sponsored rallies in Tehran and other cities chanted “Death to Mousavi” and heard repeated calls for him and Mehdi Karoubi, the other opposition leader, to be charged as mohareb, or enemies of God, for which the Sharia punishment is death.

A previously unknown group of vigilantes vowed to kill the opposition leaders unless the courts took action against them and, that night, the state news agency IRNA reported that the two leaders had fled Tehran to escape the people’s wrath — a claim that was swiftly denied.

At Friday prayers in Tehran yesterday the hardline cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati kept up the pressure, demanding that the “heads of sedition” be swiftly punished.

Yesterday’s statement was Mr Mousavi’s response. “An order to execute, murder and imprison [opposition leaders] won’t resolve the problem,” he said. “Assuming you impose silence through arrests, violence, threats and muzzling newspapers and websites, how can you remedy the people’s changed attitudes towards the regime? How can you address its lack of legitimacy?”

He demanded the release of political prisoners, a free press and the right to demonstrate peacefully. He denied wanting to overturn Iran’s constitution, saying: “We want an honest and compassionate government that considers diversity of opinion and the popular vote to be opportunities, not threats.”

Addressing the regime’s charge that he is a puppet of the West, he mocked Mr Ahmadinejad for congratulating President Obama on his election victory. “We are neither Britons nor Americans,” he said. “We have not sent congratulation cards to the leaders of major powers.”

Mr Mousavi’s statement was slapped down by Ahmad Khatami, another hardline cleric. “There is no crisis in the country. You are creating a crisis. Stop it,” the ISNA news agency quoted him as saying.

PAYANDEH IRAN!

__________________________

PERSONAL NOTE: My friends in Tehran are telling me that tonight (their tomorrow afternoon) the tanks moved into position at the protest sites.

__________________________

PAYANDEH IRAN!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/29/iran.videos/index.html

Video purportedly shows Iranian police running over person at protest

An Internet video from what its posters said was one of the anti-government demonstrations last weekend in Iran shows police vehicles driving into crowds of protesters and running over at least one.

In the video -- shot Sunday, according to the posting on the Web site YouTube -- green-and-white police trucks rush into crowds of protesters in the capital, Tehran. Demonstrators scatter, but one truck drives into a crowd trapped in a narrow street with a wall on one side and parked cars on the other.

The camera follows the truck as it backs away, and a person briefly can be seen crumpled in the street where the truck had been. When the camera returns to the spot, another police truck drives over the person.

Iran seizes activists, corpses in crackdown
West urges respect for opposition

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2009/12/29/iran_ratchets_up_crack...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/29/iran.protests.larijani/index.html

Iran's president plays down Ashura protests
December 29, 2009 2:07 p.m. EST CNN

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/iran/

CNN.com just released the following special:

Complete Coverage on Protests in Iran

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/iran/

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/29/iran-arrests-1000-as-protests-streng...

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Iran arrests 1,000 as protests strengthen

http://blog.taragana.com/politics/2009/12/29/iran-accuses-west-of-fomenting-dead...

Iran accuses West of fomenting deadly clashes, summons British ambassador to protest

By AP
December 29th, 2009

Iran accuses West of fomenting violent protests

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran is accusing Western countries of fomenting this week’s violent protests in the capital and says it is summoning Britain’s ambassador to file a complaint.

In Tehran on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the deadly clashes were the work of a tiny minority. He accused outside countries, including the U.S. and Britain, of “miscalculating” by siding with anti-government protesters. He did not directly address President Barack Obama’s praise of the reformist movement.

Iran has said as many as eight people were killed in Sunday’s clashes. There was no serious violence reported Tuesday, but opposition Web sites said several activists were arrested, including a prominent journalist and the sister of Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi.

Tehran riots: Defiant in the face of force

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/12/29/tehran-riots-defiant-in-the-...

A bloodied protester flashes the symbol of opposition in Tehran as clashes left a dozen people dead during running battles with riot police.

Iran's parliament speaker calls for 'harshest punishment'
December 29, 2009 5:09 a.m. EST

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/29/iran.protests.larijani/

Iran's influential parliament speaker Ali Larijani said Tuesday that authorities should mete out "the harshest punishment" to protesters who disrupted Ashura observances.

Addressing lawmakers, Larijani said the protesters had insulted Imam Hussein, whose death is commemorated during the religious observance.

He urged officials to "arrest offenders of the religion and mete out harshest punishments to such anti-revolutionary figures with no mercy."

Larijani also slammed Britain and the United States for condemning a government crackdown on the weekend's protesters, and said Iran would summon Britain's ambassador in Tehran to protest.

Iranian dissenters reportedly arrested
December 29, 2009 12:06 a.m. EST CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/28/iran.arrests/index.html

The latest violent protests to hit Iran has prompted hundreds of arrests, including some prominent figures, and left at least eight dead, although the Iranian government denied its security forces have killed anyone.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/28/iran.ebadi.sister/index.html

Iran detains Nobel laureate's sister
December 28, 2009 9:23 p.m. EST

(CNN) -- Iranian intelligence officials have detained the sister of Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer and human rights activist said.

Ebadi said Monday that three men and a woman arrived at the Tehran home she shared with her sister, searched the house and seized Nushin Ebadi, 47, and her computer.

"They have detained her so I stop my work," Shirin Ebadi, 62, told CNN's Reza Sayah in a phone call from London. "She has done nothing wrong. She's not involved in human rights work, and she's never participated in any of the protests."

Nushin Ebadi's arrest came in the middle of a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests that has left at least eight dead, according to the Supreme National Security Council, although the Iranian government denies its forces have killed anyone.

Shirin Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her human rights work, left Iran for a conference in Spain the day before June presidential elections that sparked an earlier round of violent protests. Friends, she said, warned her not to return to Tehran.

The Nobel laureate said she spoke with her sister Monday, a few hours before the 9 p.m. visit by ministry officials while Nushin Ebadi was at home with her husband and two sons.

Iranian Information Ministry officials contacted Nushin Ebadi several times previously, her sister said, telling her to leave their apartment and warning her not to contact her sister. Both women thought those demands were absurd.

"Not only does my sister not do any human rights work, she doesn't do any cultural work either," Shirin Ebadi said. "They only took her because of me."

Information Ministry officials contacted Nushin Ebadi on Wednesday and told her to tell her sister to stop her work and stop saying the things she says, according to her sister

Shirin Ebadi's law firm represents seven members of Iran's Baha'i Community who have been charged with espionage. She said she is certain Iranian officials are trying to intimidate her by harassing her sister, but, she said, she will not back down.

"They want to intimidate me," she said. "The only thing they want is for me to change my work."

"I am worried. I'm worried because she [Nushin Ebadi] was detained because of the work I do," she said, adding it was that work that made Nushin a target.

"She's not interested in this kind of work. She's not involved in this kind of work."

Shirin Ebadi said she advised her sister to contact an attorney when Information Ministry officials first began approaching her and that she did so.

Nushin Ebadi and her husband are professors of dentistry at Azad University in Tehran, Shirin Ebadi said, and Nushin Ebadi's husband also has a private dental practice.

Obama, Merkel condemn crackdown on Iranian protests

December 28, 2009 5:18 p.m. EST

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/28/iran.protest.reaction/index.html

(CNN) -- U.S. President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday condemned this week's violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Iran.

In separate statements, the two Western leaders called on Iran to abide by international obligations to respect the rights of the Iranian people to demonstrate for political change.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/28/iran.protests.streets/index.html

Analysts see Iran at breaking point amid protests
By Josh Levs, CNN

December 28, 2009 3:26 p.m. EST

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BR32E20091228

From Reuters

Maryam Rajavi, president of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said the latest wave of protests should be backed by economic measures by Western governments.

"It's time to adopt very firm, global sanctions," she told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"There needs to be a firm policy to cut economic and political relations because the Iranian people have taken to the streets. They have to be helped. The United States and Europe must act," she said.

The NCRI and its main faction, the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), have thousands of followers in Europe and the United States and it was the first group to expose Iran's covert nuclear program in 2002.

The group, which began as a leftist-Islamist organization opposed to the former Shah, says it has wide backing in Iran but Western analysts say its support is hard to gauge and is limited because it sided with Iraq during the 1980-88 Gulf war.

Iran's Intelligence Ministry said members of the PMOI were among those arrested in Sunday's protests.

Rajavi said the protest movement was now calling for the same things that her group was aiming for: a complete removal of the government under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"What the Iranian people want is a total change in the regime of the Supreme Leader. They don't want reform or a more moderate approach from the regime," she said.

"They want to overthrow the regime of the mullahs, they want a secular republic to replace religious dictatorship."

The PMOI was removed from a European Union list of banned terrorist groups in January but it is battling to be taken off a similar U.S. list.

"It's very unfortunate now to have the terrorist label applied to the Iranian resistance movement by Western countries because it's very clear that it was at the request of the mullahs' regime," she said.

"I think Western countries have to be impartial toward the Iranian people and the resistance and the mullahs' regime."

http://www.cfr.org/publication/21080/understanding_irans_protest_movement.html?b...

Understanding Iran's Protest Movement
Interviewee:
Robin Wright, Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow, United States Institute of Peace
Interviewer:
Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor, CFR.org

December 28, 2009

Given the outpouring of fresh anti-regime demonstrations in Iranian cities on Sunday and the efforts by the regime to crack down, what do you make of the situation in Iran? Can the opposition succeed?

The opposition has now proven it has the resolve and resilience to continue its rather daring challenge of the regime despite the repression, the arrests, the reports of torture and rape in prisons, the show trials, and the militarization of the regime. Nothing has so far been able to stop the movement......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2009/12/091228_iran_protests.shtml

From BBC World Service...

http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2009/Dec/Week4/15509050.jpg

Anti-government protesters clash with security forces in central Tehran.

The nephew of Iran's reformist opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, was reported to be among at least nine people killed after the streets of Tehran and other cities erupted in violent clashes between security forces and protesters.

Ali Mousavi, 35 and a father of two, was reportedly shot through the heart after police opened fire during disturbances in Tehran's Enghelab Square.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/27/nine-dead-iran-protests

An Iranian protester holds stones as he stands opposite security forces in Tehran.

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2009-12/51298679.jpg

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2009-12/51298915.jpg

Protecting an officer
(Associated Press / December 27, 2009)
Bystanders protect an Iranian police officer, center with white shirt, who was beaten by protesters.

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2009-12/51299023.jpg

Victory sign
(STR, Associated Press / December 27, 2009)

A protester signals victory during the anti-government protest on Enghelab Street in Tehran.

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2009-12/51298964.jpg

Battling tear gas
(AFP / Getty Images / December 27, 2009)
Tear gas is fired at protesters in Tehran.

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2009-12/51302850.jpg

A demonstrator holds aloft an image of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the presidential candidate who lost to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in disputed elections held in June.

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2009-12/51302845.jpg

(STR, European Press Agency / December 27, 2009)

A protester displays a bloodied hand.

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2009-12/51302756.jpg

Motorbikes set afire...

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/12/28/world/28iran_CA2.html

Protesters in Tehran hurled rocks at the police and set their motorbikes on fire.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/12/27/world/20091227-IRAN_index.html

The New York Times Slide Show

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/12/28/world/28iran_CA0.html

Iranian protesters attacked police officers during clashes on Sunday in Tehran, where five people reportedly were killed.