Scores wounded at Iran rally

2009-06-15 20:15

Aresu Eqbali and Farhad Pouladi

Tehran - A protester was reportedly shot dead during clashes on Monday as huge crowds defied a ban to stage a rally against the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

A photographer said the protester had been shot in the head and several more were wounded when violence erupted outside a local base of the Islamic Basji militia, which had been set ablaze.

People were seen fleeing the area as police fired tear gas on the protesters. Huge clouds of smoke billowed into the sky.

The violence flared after Ahmadinejad's defeated rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi, appeared in public for the first time since an election that has sharply divided the nation and triggered a wave of protests and rioting.

Iran, battling one of its worst crises since the Islamic revolution three decades ago, faced a growing international backlash over the validity of the election and the subsequent crackdown on opposition protests.

"God willing, we will take back our rights," Mousavi shouted from the roof of a car amid a vast sea of Iranians, young and old, who packed into central Tehran despite the authorities ordering a ban on the rally.

The White House voiced its concern over the vote, while the State Department said it was "deeply troubled" by the violence. UN chief Ban Ki-moon has called for the will of the Iranian people to be "fully respected."

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini  ordered a probe into allegations of vote-rigging after Ahmadinejad was returned to power in a landslide, an election that dented Western hopes of a change in domestic and foreign policy of the oil-rich nation.

- SAPA