Hours after supreme leader Ali Khamenei warned fellow Iranians against continued protests of last week's official election results, plans for further demonstrations appeared to move forward Friday as signs of tightened security emerged, CNN reported.
Khamenei's blunt warning against the continuation of such protests, which he delivered during Friday's morning prayers, was ignored by hundreds if not thousands of Iranians. Their voices of defiance rose Friday night from their rooftops of Tehran, where they shouted "Death to the dictator" and "Allah Akbar," or "God is Great," according to sources and video posted on YouTube.
The tactic is a reprise of one that swept across the city in 1979, when the Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini toppled the shah.
A source in Tehran whose descriptions of events there have proven credible in the past told CNN in an e-mail that on Friday night he drove through a road checkpoint set up by the Basiji militia, a voluntary paramilitary force that takes orders from the government.
"Older and younger Basijis, holding huge guns, were checking out passing cars for potential 'trouble-makers,'" he wrote, describing the situation on the street as "quasi martial law."