Protesters rally for Mousavi in election dispute

updated 9:32 p.m. ET June 15, 2009

TEHRAN, Iran - In a massive outpouring reminiscent of the Islamic Revolution three decades ago, hundreds of thousands of Iranians streamed through the capital Monday, and the fist-waving protesters denounced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim to victory in a disputed election.

Standing on rooftops, pro-government gunmen opened fire on a group of protesters who had tried to storm the militia's compound. One man was killed and several others were wounded in the worst violence since the disputed election Friday.

Angry men showed their bloody palms after cradling the dead and wounded who had been part of a crowd that stretched more than five miles supporting reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

The huge rally reinforced what has become increasingly clearer since the election: the opposition forces rallying behind Mousavi show no signs of backing down. Their resolve appears to have pushed Iran's Islamic establishment into attempts to cool the tensions after days of unrest.

Police and other security forces stood by quietly — some sitting on stoops with their batons and shields resting behind them as the marchers swallowed the streets in parts of Tehran. Estimates put the turnout at hundreds of thousands overflowing the square, where crowds of 200,000 have filled the plaza in the past.

The outcome of the election has disconcerted Western powers trying to induce the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter to curb its nuclear program. Asked about Iran, President Barack Obama said Monday he does not know who rightfully won the election, but that Iranians have a right to feel their ballots mattered.

Obama said an investigation into alleged vote-rigging should go ahead without additional violence. "It would be wrong for me to be silent on what we've seen on the television the last few days," he told reporters at the White House.

"And what I would say to those people who put so much hope and energy and optimism into the political process, I would say to them that the world is watching and inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was," Obama said. "And they should know that the world is watching."

State TV shows march
Mousavi made his first public appearance since the polls closed, and he launched his claims that the vote was rigged to re-elect the hard-line president. The government says Ahmadinejad won re-election with 63 percent of the vote.

Brief clips of the march were shown on state television in an extremely rare nod to anti-government attacks.

"Respect the people's vote!" Mousavi cried through a hand-held loudspeaker in Azadi, or Freedom, Square — where Iran's leaders hold military and political gatherings.

It appeared that Iran's ruling clerics had opened the door for the demonstration — even giving it news coverage — in a possible bid to avoid more street clashes and seek some breathing room in the growing confrontation.

But a single moment could change all that. Gunfire erupted from a compound used by the Basij, a volunteer militia linked to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard. An Associated Press photographer saw at least one demonstrator killed and several others with what appeared to be serious injuries. The protesters had tried to storm and set fire to the compound on the edge of Azadi Square.

Some reports put the death toll higher, but they could not be confirmed.

The dead man, wearing a white shirt and khaki pants, lay sprawled on the sidewalk with blood from a head wound spilling onto the pavement. Nearby, protesters carried another gunshot victim, a makeshift tourniquet around his thigh, onto the back of a yellow taxi.

It was first known death in Tehran since postelection clashes erupted and could be a further rallying point in a culture that venerates martyrs and often marks their death with memorials. One of Mousavi's Web sites said a student protester was killed early Monday in clashes with plainclothes hard-liners in Shiraz in southern Iran. But there was no independent confirmation of the report.

Clashes outside Tehran
Protests also spread across the country. Witnesses told the AP that pro-Mousavi demonstrators clashed with police in the historic city of Esfahan and the northeastern city of Mashhad, a conservative bastion with one of Iran's most holy Shiite shrines.

Police in Shiraz fired in the air to disperse several pro-Mousavi gatherings. Fars Province Police Gen. Ali Moayeri said officers had been "authorized to shoot. From now on we will respond harshly."

In the heavily Arab city of Ahvaz near the Iraqi border, a crowd of about 2,000 people chanted: "We don't want a dictator!" Police attacked some with batons.

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