Iran state television said 10 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in protests in Teheran on Saturday. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
TEHERAN - IRANIAN state radio said on Monday that 457 people were arrested in clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Teheran that took place late on Saturday.
MR MOUSAVI, who came second to Mr Ahmadinejad in the poll and whose followers have spearheaded protests, says the election was rigged and must be annulled.
An analysis of official statistics from Iran's Interior Ministry by Britain's Chatham House think-tank suggested that in the conservative Mazandaran and Yazd provinces, turnout was more than 100 per cent.
IN PRO-MOUSAVI districts of northern Teheran, supporters took to the rooftops after dusk to chant their defiance, an echo of tactics used in the 1979 Islamic revolution.
'I heard repeated shootings while people were chanting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) in Niavaran area,' said a witness, who asked not to be named.
The arrests were made around the Iranian capital's Azadi square, the radio report said, quoting the police. Forty police officers were wounded and 34 government buildings damaged, FARS news agency said, also quoting police.
Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi urged supporters on Sunday to continue protests over a disputed presidential election, in a direct challenge to the leadership of the Islamic Republic.
Mr Mousavi also issued an oblique appeal to the security forces to show restraint in handling demonstrations - a move likely to be viewed with deep suspicion by a conservative leadership that has vowed to use force wherever necessary to quell opposition.
Helicopters buzzed through the evening sky over Teheran and gunfire was heard in the north of the city, a bastion of support for the reformist former prime minister.
'Protesting against lies and fraud (in the election) is your right,' Mr Mousavi said in a statement on his website.
'In your protests, continue to show restraint. I am expecting armed forces to avoid irreversible damage,' he added.
Iran state television said 10 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in protests in Teheran on Saturday held in defiance of a warning from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A separate report put the number of deaths at 13. Mr Mousavi said the mass arrest of his supporters, 'will create a rift between society and the country's armed forces'.
A product of the Islamic establishment himself, Mr Mousavi said on Saturday he was not questioning the fundaments of the Islamic Republic but sought to renew it and purge it of what he called deceit and lies.
The dispute over the June 12 election which returned to power hardline anti-Western President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sparked the most violent unrest since the Islamic Revolution which ousted the US-backed shah in 1979.
The authorities in Iran, a major gas and oil producer, have dismissed the protesters as 'terrorists' and rioters, an indication of their determination to crack down hard on demonstrations. Teheran's police commander Azizullah Rajabzadeh said police would 'confront all gatherings and unrest with all its strength,' the official IRNA news agency reported. -- REUTERS
