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Sunday, June 14, 2009

Iranian Protesters Chants 'Death To The Government'

News stories earlier today said that Ahmadinejad has supposedly won the Iranian presidential election, although many claims of fraud were also coming out of Iran.

Looks like all hell has broken loose with headlines like "Iran on fire" and others, as protesters clash with police in Iran.

Via Michael J. Totten, we see video on YouTube (shown below) of protesters chanting "Death To The Government."



Totten has more video shown, go see.

Time reports:

In neighborhoods across north and central Tehran, shouts of "Death to dictator!" fill the air, mostly in female voices, coming from house windows. There are also shouts of "Allah-o Akbar!" — reminiscent of the revolution — on the urging of a communique from Mousavi's office.

Some of Tehran's main streets have been turned into urban battlegrounds. Groups of mostly young men have set large garbage bins on fire in the middle of streets, torn out street signs and fences, broken the windows and ATM machines of state banks, and burnt at least five large buses in the middle of streets.


BBC:

Thousands of angry protesters have clashed with police after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of Iran's presidential poll.

Secret police have been attacked, while riot police used batons and tear gas against backers of Mir Hossein Mousavi, who called the results a "charade".

Correspondents say the violence is the worst seen in Tehran in a decade.


Fox: 'U.S. officials are skeptical."

But U.S. officials are skeptical of the outcome, in which the government declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner Saturday.

U.S. analysts find it "not credible" that challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi would have lost the balloting in his hometown or that a third candidate, Mehdi Karoubi, would have received less than 1 percent of the total vote, a senior U.S. officials told FOX News.

Despite a reportedly record turnout of 85 percent, the senior official said given the "not credible" counts for Mousavi and Karoubi, the turnout clearly was questionable.


It is being reported that Mir Hossein Mousavi, the challenger to Ahmadinejad, has been arrested.

Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi was reportedly arrested Saturday following the reformist's defeat at the polls by hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Supporters of Mousavi, the main challenger to Ahmadinejad, have responded to the election with the most serious unrest in Tehran in a decade and claim that the result was the work of a dictatorship.

There have been a number of contradictory reports from Iran, in large part due to the heavy restrictions imposed on the media in the Islamic Republic and in particular on foreign reporters.

Mousavi's arrest was reported by an unofficial source, who said that the presidential contender had been arrested en route to the home of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Pro-reform Mousavi has denounced the election as rigged and vowed he will not accept defeat. He and key aides could not be reached by phone Saturday.

Several hundred demonstrators - many wearing the trademark green colors of Mousavi's campaign - chanted "the government lied to the people" and gathered near the Interior Ministry as the final count from Friday's presidential election was announced.

As night fell Saturday, the rioting and fires continued on the streets of Tehran. The city's cell phone network appeared to be down Saturday night. When users tried to call cell phones, a message appeared saying error in connection. There were also reports of difficulties accessing social networking sites - used by Mousavi to rally supporters.


More, up close and personal news from Tehran Bureau.

More from New York Times and Reuters.


Hot Air has been all over this, all day, so go take a look at the updates as well as following the links.

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