Hoseyn Ali Montazeri was a moving spirit in the 1979 revolution which created Iran's Islamic state, and was at one stage set to become its leader.

One of Shia Islam's most respected figures, he was also a leading critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The BBC's Jon Leyne says the death comes at a crucial time in a standoff between the government and opposition.

Iran's rulers will now fear the opposition may attempt a big turnout for his funeral on Monday and other ceremonies marking his death, especially in the run-up to the Shia Muslim festival of Ashura on 27 December, our correspondent says.

Too bad it couldn't have been Khomeini.

Updates - riots in Tehran. Perhaps I would change the title in time if this continues to be a major news topic.

BBC NEWS
Iranian protesters die in clashes

Opposition sources in Iran say that at least eight protesters have been killed in violent clashes between anti-government crowds and police.

The nephew of former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi was among four killed in Tehran, and reports say four also died in the city of Tabriz.

Security forces reportedly opened fire in Tehran after losing control.

It is almost certainly the worst loss of life in protests since the disputed presidential election in June.

Opposition parties had urged people to take to the streets as the Shia Muslim festival of Ashura reached a climax.

People were chanting "Khamenei will be toppled", opposition sources said, a reference to Iran's Supreme Leader.

Thousands of demonstrators are reported to have taken part in the protests, in defiance of official warnings.

Initial reports from Tehran said the security forces fired in the air to disperse the protests, but several different reports said that at least one, and possibly as many as four demonstrators, had been shot dead.

Police sources, quoted by the Iranian Fars news agency, denied this, saying foreign media were exaggerating reports of unrest.

But state television later acknowledged there had been several fatalities.

Mr Mousavi was at the hospital where his nephew Seyed Mousavi was taken after being fatally shot in the heart at Enghelab Square.

Although there were deaths in the immediate aftermath of the disputed elections and protests in June, fatalities since then have been rare.



The security forces clearly have to tread a fine line between not appearing weak but also not provoking opposition protesters, says Siavash Ardalan of BBC Persian TV.

Police helicopters were seen flying over central Tehran as clouds of black smoke billowed into the sky, reports said.

On the ground, the security forces clashed with protesters trying to reach central Enghelab Square, witnesses said.

Protesters were chanting, "This is the month of blood", and calling for the downfall of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to opposition websites.

At the same time, crowds of pro-government demonstrators marched on Enghelab Street to voice support for Ayatollah Khamenei, witnesses said.

Opposition websites also reported four deaths in Tabriz, in northwestern Iran, and protests were also reported in the cities of Isfahan and nearby Najafabad.

The French foreign ministry said it condemned the "arbitrary arrests and the violent actions committed against simple protesters who came to defend their right to freedom of expression and their desire for democracy."

The French government has continued to lobby the Iranian authorities to release a French university lecturer who was charged with spying during the election. Clotilde Reiss remains in Tehran, and last appeared in court on 23 December.

Disputed election

Tensions have risen in Iran since influential dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri died a week ago aged 87.

Supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have sought to use Shia religious festivals this weekend to show continued defiance of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government.

Denied the right to protest, the opposition chose the highly significant festival of Ashura when millions of Iranians traditionally go onto the streets for ceremonies and parades, BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne says.

The festival mourns the 7th Century death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.

Iranian television had live coverage of the Ashura ceremonies, including those in Tehran attended by President Ahmadinejad.

Mr Mousavi came second in the June election, and anger at the result saw mass protests in Tehran and other cities that led to thousands of arrests and some deaths.

Mr Mousavi has said the poll, that returned Mr Ahmadinejad to power, was fraudulent.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/m ... 431523.stm

Published: 2009/12/27 17:25:51 GMT

© BBC MMIX

Whoa. If that's really the rhetoric being thrown about by the protesters in Tehran, it's on.

Mousavi nephew, others die in protests: Iran websites
Photo
12:58pm EST

By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An opposition website said eight people were killed in clashes between pro-reform protesters and security forces in Iran on Sunday.

Opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi's nephew was among the dead, an adviser to Mousavi said.

If confirmed, it would be the worst violence in the Islamic Republic since protests that followed a disputed election in June which plunged the oil producer into turmoil and exposed widening splits within its clerical and political establishment.

It could also provoke further street protests against the hardline government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Tehran's police chief denied a report by the opposition Jaras website that four people had been killed in a second day of violence in Tehran during a Shi'ite religious festival.

But an adviser to Mousavi confirmed a report on Parlemannews website that the opposition leader's nephew was killed.

"I express my regrets and deep condolences over the martyrdom of your nephew Ali Habibi Mousevi on Sunday," Kaleme website quoted Alireza Beheshti as saying.

Jaras said at least four protesters were killed and many others wounded in the northwestern city of Tabriz, a Mousavi stronghold. A witness told Reuters that people were pouring into the streets of Tabriz, chanting anti-government slogans.

Jaras said unrest spread to other parts of Iran, including the holy city of Qom, in reports that could not be independently verified.

Police shot dead three protesters in central Tehran and a fourth demonstrator was killed later in the capital, it said.

"We will kill those who killed our brothers," Jaras quoted demonstrators as chanting.

Photographs from the clashes showed one man whose face was covered in blood, lying on the ground. Other pictures showed burning motorbikes and protesters throwing stones at police.

The reported killings would be the first in street protests since widespread unrest in the immediate aftermath of the June poll in which the opposition says more than 70 people died.

The authorities have estimated the post-vote death toll at about half that number, including pro-government militiamen.

Tehran police chief Azizollah Rajabzadeh, speaking about Sunday's protests, said: "So far there have been no reports of killings and no one has been killed up to now," according to the ISNA news agency. He said some arrests had been made.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators had packed the streets of Tehran and clashes also erupted in the cities of Shiraz, Isfahan, Najafabad, Mashhad and Babol, Jaras said.

It said 20 people were detained in Qom and Mashhad and that protests would continue in Tehran on Sunday evening. Shots were heard in northern Tehran after nightfall.

"DECEIVED HOOLIGANS"

English-language state television reported sporadic clashes in Tehran and said a bank and bus stop were set ablaze. It said police had fired into the air to disperse demonstrators.

The official IRNA news agency said two women and a child were hurt when rioters threw stones at people marking Ashura. It is one of the main Shi'ite holy days when the faithful commemorate the slaying of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson Hussein in Kerbala in present-day Iraq in 680 AD.

The semi-official Fars News Agency said supporters of opposition leader Mousavi "followed the call of the foreign media" and took to the streets -- a reference to the government position that the unrest is being stoked by foreign enemies of the Islamic Republic.

It said the group of "deceived hooligans" damaged public and private property and "disrespected" the holy Shi'ite day of Ashura, without elaborating.

Foreign media have been banned from reporting directly from opposition demonstrations since the June election.

Despite scores of arrests and security crackdowns, opposition protests have flared repeatedly since the June poll, which the opposition says was rigged to secure Ahmadinejad's re-election.

Reformist websites said there had also been clashes in Tehran on Saturday, with baton-wielding riot police firing tear gas and warning shots to disperse Mousavi supporters.

The authorities had warned the opposition against using the two-day Shi'ite Muslim Tasoua and Ashura festival on December 26-27 to revive protests against the clerical establishment.

"The Iranian nation has shown tolerance so far but they should know that the ... system's patience has a limit," Mojtaba Zolnour, a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the Revolutionary Guards, said, Fars reported.

This year's Ashura on Sunday coincided with the traditional seventh day of mourning for leading dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died a week ago at the age of 87 in the holy Shi'ite city of Qom.

A spiritual patron of Mousavi's movement, he was a fierce critic of the hardline clerical establishment.

The unrest that erupted after the June vote is the biggest in the Islamic state's 30-year history. Authorities deny opposition charges that voting was rigged.

The turmoil has complicated the international dispute over Iran's nuclear programme, which the West believes may have military ends, not just civilian purposes. Iran has rejected an end-of-year deadline set by world powers for it to agree a U.N.-drafted deal to ship most of its low-enriched uranium abroad in exchange for fuel for a Tehran research reactor.

It has also set back tentative U.S. moves toward a rapprochement with Iran initiated by U.S. President Barack Obama when he took office in January..

(Editing by Angus MacSwan)