Iran: Shots Fired at Massive Political Rally
June 15th, 2009Via: BBC:
Shots have been fired at a rally in Iran where hundreds of thousands of people were demonstrating against last week’s presidential election results.
Unconfirmed reports said one protester was killed and several more were hurt when security forces opened fire.
The crowd had been addressed by beaten candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who believes the vote was fixed in favour of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mr Ahmadinejad has dismissed the claims and says the vote was fair.
The BBC’s Jon Leyne, in Tehran, says Monday’s rally was the biggest demonstration in the Islamic republic’s 30-year history and described it as a “political earthquake”.
The government had outlawed any protest following two days of unrest, with the interior ministry warning that “any disrupter of public security would be dealt with according to the law”.
Despite this, correspondents said riot police had been watching the rally during the afternoon and had seemed to be taking no action.
But reports at 2045 local time (1615 GMT) said shots were being fired.
“There has been sporadic shooting out there… I can see people running here,” Reuters quoted a reporter of Iran’s Press TV as saying from Tehran’s Azadi Square.
“A number of people who are armed, I don’t know exactly who they are, but they have started to fire on people causing havoc in Azadi Square.”
A photographer at the scene told news agencies that security forces had killed one protester and seriously wounded several others.
He said the shooting began when the crowd attacked a compound used by a religious militia linked to the country’s powerful Revolutionary Guard.
The AFP news agency reported that police fired tear gas and groups of protestors set motorbikes alight.
It’s Deja Vu all over again.
My country tis of thee.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/22317
Look at the timeline since American intelligence interests first asserted themselves “pro-actively” in Iran, in lieu of earlier British steersmanship. Mossadegh: 1951-1953.
Next go, the hostage crisis. Solution negotiated backdoor by the party that conveniently went on to win the election: 1979-1980.
Today, a disputed election giving off a distinct whiff of the next “color revolution” in that corner of the world: 2009-?.
An interesting coincidence, if nothing else, that roughly thirty-year “cycle”. It’s almost like watching fashion trends.