10 reportedly killed in Iran protests

Iranian police opened fire into crowds of protesters Sunday, killing at least 10 people, witnesses and opposition Web sites said, and setting off a day of chaotic street battles that seemed poised to deepen the country's civil unrest.

The nationwide protests during the holiday commemorating the seventh-century death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and Shiite Islam's holiest martyr, were the bloodiest and among the largest since uprisings after Iran's disputed presidential election in June, witnesses said. Hundreds of people were reported wounded across the country, and Tehran police said 300 people were arrested.

Among those allegedly shot to death by security forces or allied pro-government militias was Ali Habibi-Mousavi, described by Web sites as the 43-year-old nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

The deaths of Mousavi's nephew and others now set the stage for more demonstrations coinciding with Habibi-Mousavi's burial today and the religiously significant third-, seventh- and 40th-day grieving ceremonies for him. Such cycles of protests linked to mourning ceremonies for slain protesters dislodged Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi more than three decades ago.

Authorities' decision to use deadly force on the Ashoura holiday also infuriated many Iranians, and some said the violence appeared to galvanize more traditional religious people who have not been part of previous protests. Historically, Iranian rulers have honored Ashoura's prohibition of violence, even during wartime.

Police denied opening fire on demonstrators, accusing "mysterious" forces of being behind any violence. Brig. Gen. Ahmad Reza Radan, deputy commander of the Iran's police force, said only one person was killed by gunfire, according to state media. He said "tens" of police were wounded.

But a doctor at Najmieh Hospital in Tehran said Sunday night that the hospital had performed 17 operations on people with gunshot wounds. They were treating 60 people with serious head injuries, including three who were in critical condition, said the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions.

In Tehran, thick crowds marched down a central avenue in midmorning, defying official warnings of a harsh crackdown on protests as they chanted "death to Khamenei," referring to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

They refused to retreat even as police fired tear gas, charged them with batons and fired warning shots. Police then opened fire into the crowd, opposition Web sites said, citing witnesses. Besides the five reported slayings in Tehran, four were killed in the northwestern city of Tabriz, and one in Shiraz in the south, the Web sites reported. Photographs of several victims were circulated widely.

The White House condemned what it called the "unjust suppression" of civilians.

Unlike other protesters, Mousavi appears to have been killed by assassins in a political gesture aimed at his uncle, according to Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a Paris-based opposition figure with close ties to the Mousavi family.

Mousavi was run over by a sport-utility vehicle outside his home, Makhmalbaf wrote on his Web site. Five men then emerged from the car, and one shot Mousavi. Government officials took the body late Sunday and warned the family not to hold a funeral, Makhmalbaf wrote.

In some parts of Tehran, protesters pushed police back, hurling rocks and capturing several police cars and motorcycles, which were set on fire. Internet videos showed scenes of mayhem, with trash containers burning and protesters attacking Basij militia volunteers amid a din of screams. One video showed protesters setting an entire police station aflame.

There were scattered reports of police officers surrendering, or refusing to fight.

By late afternoon, coils of black smoke rose from dozens of street fires over central Tehran, and smaller groups of protesters continued to skirmish with police and Basiji. In the evening, loudspeakers in Imam Hussein Square, where most clashes in the capital took place, announced that gatherings of more than three people were banned, witnesses said.

Foreign journalists have been banned from covering the protests, and the reports could not be verified independently.

If the 10 deaths are confirmed, it would be the highest toll since summer, when huge crowds protested what they said was massive fraud in the presidential election won by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The protests may have received a boost from the death last week of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a patriarch of Iran's Islamic revolution who had became a fierce critic of the country's rulers. His memorials have brought out not only young activists and students who have dominated protests, but older and more conservative people who revered him for reasons of faith as well as politics.

Sunday was the seventh day since his death, an important marker in Shiite mourning rituals.

Late Sunday, authorities declared martial law in Najafabad, Montazeri's hometown, the Jaras Web site reported.

Yet, few protesters expected the scale of the bloodshed that broke out Sunday. The memory of Imam Hussein is so potent among Shiite Muslims that killing for any reason is strictly forbidden on Ashoura.

"Ashoura is a very symbolic day in our culture, and it revives the notion that the innocents were killed by a villain," said Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, a former member of the Iranian parliament who is a visiting scholar at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. "Killing people on Ashoura shows how far Khamenei is willing to go to suppress the protests."