A FLOOD of security forces using tear gas and clubs quickly overwhelmed a small group of rock-throwing protesters near Iran's parliament on Wednesday, and the country's supreme leader said the outcome of the disputed presidential election will stand - the latest signs of the government's growing confidence in quelling unrest on the streets.
Dozens of activists, protesters and Iranian journalists - and at least one foreign reporter - have been detained since the election, human rights groups say.
The overall death toll is not clear; state media said at least 17 people have been killed. Amateur video showed the death Saturday of a woman identified as Neda Agha Soltan, who has become a worldwide symbol of the bloodshed.
WEDNESDAY'S unrest showed the lopsided odds. Groups of protesters - perhaps several hundred - tossed rocks and trash at riot police in running clashes outside parliament. The demonstrators fled as police used tear gas and fired in the air, possibly with live ammunition.
Throughout the day, black-clad security agents and police watched main streets and squares to prevent any major gatherings - a stark difference from last week when authorities generally stood aside and allowed a series of marches that brought more than 1 million people streaming through Teheran.
AYATOLLAH Khamenei also reinforced Iran's accusations that the United States, Britain and other foreign powers were encouraging the unrest - apparently part of a coordinated strategy to disgrace Mr Mousavi and his followers.
State television showed detained demonstrators whose faces were blurred out. Some of them made 'confessions,' saying they had been incited by the British Broadcasting Corp and Voice of America. They said demonstrators, not security forces, had used violence.
As the election showdown has shifted, demonstrators are finding themselves increasingly scattered and struggling under a blanket crackdown that the wife of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi compared to martial law. In Wednesday's clashes, thousands of police crushed hundreds of Mousavi supporters.
The statement by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the June 12 election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would not be reversed was accompanied by a vow that the nation's rulers would never yield to demands from the streets.
Since last week's protests, the government has unleashed days of escalating force, including the full weight of the powerful Revolutionary Guard and its feared civilian militias on the opposition.
Social networking sites carried claims of brutal tactics by police such as savage beatings with batons, but the report could not be independently confirmed. In the battle for public opinion, the leaders also ramped up a familiar smear campaign: that the opposition was being aided by the United States and other perceived foes of Iran.
What began as groundswell protest of alleged vote fraud increasingly appears to be splintering into random acts of rage and frustration against emboldened and well-armed security forces determined to hold their ground.
Many experts in Iranian affairs do not believe the dwindling street protests signal an end for the challenges to Ayatollah Khamenei and the regime. Many foresee lower-risk - but still potent - acts of dissent such as general strikes, blocking traffic with sit-ins, and the nightly cries of protest from rooftops and balconies.
'It will carry on until the regime changes: Weeks, months, years. You'd be a fool to predict,' said Robert Hunter, a former US ambassador to Nato and head of Middle East Affairs in the Carter administration. 'But the beast of the desire for something different is on the prowl.'
Senior Israeli Defence Ministry official Amos Gilad told The Associated Press that he sees no 'signs of Mr Ahmadinejad's regime collapsing any time soon.' 'The intelligence community worldwide were surprised by the protests,' he said.
There are still signs of life in the protest movement. Small groups battled police on Wednesday and there were calls on reformist websites for a gathering on Thursday at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
But Mr Mousavi has increasingly turned his back on mass street demonstrations, fearing the likelihood of more violence or deaths. -- AP
