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Iran death toll mounts as leaders take aim at West
AFP - Monday, June 22
TEHRAN (AFP) - - At least 10 people were killed in the latest unrest to shake Tehran, state television said on Sunday, as Iranian leaders took aim at Western "meddling" in the post-election tumult that has triggered the worst crisis since the Islamic revolution.
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The opposition stepped up its challenge of the country's Islamic rulers, with defeated presidential challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi firing off an unprecedented criticism of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after a day of deadly violence in Tehran.
State television said 10 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in Tehran on Saturday, blaming "terrorists" with firearms and explosives, bringing the overall toll reported by state media in a week of violence to at least 17.
Struggling to contain the massive street protests unleashed since the disputed June 12 election, Iranian leaders on Sunday lashed out at Western nations, foreign media outlets and the exiled opposition.
World leaders have voiced mounting alarm over the unrest, which has jolted the pillars of the Islamic regime and raised concerns over the future of the oil-rich Shiite Muslim powerhouse.
But Ahmadinejad bluntly told the United States and Britain to stop interfering after Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki accused London of plotting for the past two years to sabotage the election.
"By making hasty comments, you will not have a place in the circle of the Iranian nation's friends. Therefore, I recommend you to correct your interfering positions," Ahmadinejad said in a statement on his website.
The Fars news agency said that Iran had ordered the BBC's correspondent in Tehran to leave the country within 24 hours while the Mehr news agency warned the British media of further action if the "interference" continues.
In his latest comments on Saturday, US President Barack Obama, who has appealed for dialogue with Tehran after three decades of severed ties, called on Iran to stop "all violent and unjust actions against its own people.
"The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching."
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he rejected the charges that protesters were being "manipulated or motivated" by foreign countries and denounced what he said were Iran's effort to turn the election dispute into a "battle" with the outside world.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said his country was "worried" by the loss of life in Iran, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a recount.
Iran's deputy police chief Ahmad Reza Radan blamed "thugs" from the exiled opposition group the People's Mujahedeen of Iran (PMOI) for the violence.
Last week, state media reported that at least seven people had been killed and many more wounded in the post-election protests which have engulfed Tehran and other cities since last Saturday.
Mousavi, leading the massive wave of public opposition to the vote that returned Ahmadinejad to power, accused the country's rulers of "cheating" and warned of a dangerous path ahead.
He unleashed his broadside against Iran's all-powerful leader, after police firing tear gas and water cannon clashed with thousands of protestors who defied an ultimatum from Khamenei for an end to their street protests.
Mousavi, who was premier in the aftermath of the Islamic revolution, lashed out at Khamenei in an unprecedented challenge to the man who has ruled over Iran for 20 years.
In his first public appearance since the vote, Khameini on Friday ruled out any election fraud and warned that opposition leaders would be responsible for "blood, violence and chaos" if there was no end to protests.
But the moderate Mousavi, 67, reiterated his demand for a new election after official results showed he had lost to the incumbent by a landslide, saying that "cheating" threatened the very foundations of the republic.
He warned in a statement on his newspaper's website that if people were unable to defend their rights peacefully "there will be dangerous ways ahead."
"We are not against our sacred system and its legal structures. This structure protects our independence, freedom and the Islamic republic," he said.
"We are against deviation and lying and we seek to reform that, reform to return to the pure principles of the Islamic revolution."
Khamenei, who ordered a probe into allegations of electoral fraud, insisted in his Friday sermon on the legality of Ahmadinejad's victory.
Scores of reformists and political activists have been rounded up by the authorities since the violence exploded. The latest arrested two journalists who worked for a variety of reformist newspapers, a colleague said.
Witnesses gave accounts of brutal violence against protesters on Saturday by the Basij, the volunteer Islamic militia at the forefront of the crackdown.
The foreign media has been barred from covering the demonstrations as part of tight new restrictions on their work.
"The robocops beat us up badly," one protestor told AFP. "Men and women were beaten up... My whole body is bruised."
"Lots of guards on motorbikes closed in on us and beat us brutally," another said.
The head of Iran's security council, Abbas Mohtaj, on Saturday delivered a sterm warning to Mousavi, whose supporters have been turning out wearing scarves and headbands in green, his campaign colour.
"Should you provoke and call for these illegal rallies you will be responsible for the consequences," he said.
Iran's electoral watchdog, the 12-member Guardians Council, said on Saturday it was ready to randomly recount up to 10 percent of the ballot boxes from the election.
Karim Sadjadpour of US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the "previously sacred red lines" were being challenged in Iran -- where 60 percent of the population were born after the revolution.
"It is unprecedented that people would begin to openly challenge Khamenei's legitimacy as supreme leader, and indeed question the legitimacy of the institution of the supreme leader," he said.
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Enlarge Photo
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the nation that voters had picked who they wanted as president in last week's disputed election. He was delivering the sermon at the main weekly prayers on Friday, making his first public appearance since the post-election unrest.
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