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Tehran governor: new protests will be smashed

Iran Materials 9 July 2009 12:18 (UTC +04:00)
Tehran governor: new protests will be smashed

The governor of Tehran province warned that security forces will "smash" any attempt at protests on Thursday amid calls for the first significant opposition marches since a major crackdown more than a week ago, AP reported.

Supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have called for new demonstrations in Tehran and several other cities. The calls are a bid to revive street action after police, Revolutionary Guards and Basij militiamen crushed the dramatic mass protests that erupted over Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election.

Tehran government Morteza Tamaddon warned that any new march would meet the same fate.

"If some individuals plan to have anti-security move through listening to a call by counter-revolutionary networks, they will be smashed under the feet of our aware people," he said, according to the state news agency IRNA in a report late Wednesday.

He said the government will "strongly" provide security.

Thursday morning, there was no overt sign of stepped-up security in the Tehran squares where activists urged supporters to rally. The calls for protest have been circulating for days on social networking Web sites and other pro-opposition Web sites.

The protests have been called to coincide with the anniversary Thursday of a deadly attack by Basij on Tehran University dorm in 1999.

Mousavi and his pro-reform supporters say he won the election and that official results showing a landslide victory for incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are fraudulent.

At least 20 protesters and 7 Basijis were killed in the crackdown on pro-Mousavi protests that erupted after the election, and at least 1,000 people were arrested. Police say most have since been released, but security forces have continued to round up activists.

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