IRAN: Blast Reported In Tehran At Shrine - Shots Fired

by Edmund Jenks | June 20, 2009 at 06:37 am

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UPDATE from CNN - Reports 2 dead and 8 injured ... reported from Iran state run television.

This, on the day after the Supreme Leader warned of severe governmental action if protest rallies were to continue. Thousands of people have taken to the streets today, on Saturday, the day after the day of prayer.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at the Tehran mausoleum of Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, killing himself and wounding eight, a police official told the Mehr news agency.

Also, Iranian police fire shots (lots of shots) into crowd gathered to protest - YouTube from Persian BBC!

A blast has occurred in Tehran at the shrine of the Ayatollah Khomeini, according to cable television network CNN. CNN said that Iranian state TV was reporting that two people had been hurt in the explosion at the shrine. The Ayatollah Khomeini is regarded as the founder of the modern Iran. Despite strong warnings from Iran's supreme leader to halt protests, reports were that protestors had gathered and that police were trying to disburse the activists with tear gas.

This excerpted and edited from Daily News -

Post-election violence escalated Saturday in the streets of Iran, with baton-wielding police battering defiant protesters at an anti-government rally in Tehran's Revolution Square.
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Police fired water cannons and tear gas at protesters in central Tehran, where opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad chanted, "Death to the dictator!" and "Death to the dictatorship!"

Dozens of demonstrators were beaten bloody by police and pro-government militia as helicopters and black smoke hovered over the city.

Ambulance sirens echoed through the streets as the protesters carried their beaten comrades to safety.

Even before the clashes on the streets of the city, Iranian officials had warned they were fast approaching zero tolerance for further demonstrations. The protests began last week.

"Police forces will crack down on any gathering or protest rally which are being planned by some people," said Tehran Province Police Chief Ahmad Reza Radan.

Eyewitnesses in Tehran told the Associated Press that thousands of riot police and soldiers in plainclothes packed the city streets to prevent demonstrations.

It was unclear if there were any deaths or injuries in the clashes between protesters and police.

The growing unrest followed the re-election of Ahmadinejad in a vote that protesters insist was rife with fraud.

The protesters were demanding the Iranian government throw out the election results and conduct a second vote between the president and opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Reference Here>>

Use these numbers and email information to discuss the Iranian elections with Government officials!

WARNING - Do NOT call from within Iran.

** UPDATE ** President ** UPDATE **
    * 00989121196107
    * 00989123274006
    * Presidency Office, Pasteur Avenue, Tehran, Iran
    * Zip code: 13168-43311, Postal Box: 1423-13185

Esfandiyar Rahim-Masha'i - Vice President of Iran
    * r_mashaee@ichto.ir

Council of Guardians
    * 00982166401012

Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi - President's trusted advisor and campaign manager
    * 00989121081443

Ali Akbar Javanfekr - Press advisor to the President
    * aajavan321@hotmail.com
    * 00989123279500 (telephone)
    * 00982164454028 (fax)

Gholamhoseyn Elham - Government spokesperson
    * 00989121486826

Iranian-Americans rally to show support outside of the Whitehouse in
Washington DC and The Federal Building in Westwood Village, Los Angeles, California.

Comment from the White House On Events In Iran Due Soon - 9:55am PT (FOXNews)

11:45am PT: Paper Statement released by the White House to the Press -

Statement from the President [Barack Obama] on Iran

The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.

As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

Martin Luther King once said - "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.

With banners, flowers and photographs of the violence in Tehran, Iranian-exiles condemned the re-election of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In Hamburg, police said some 4000 people marched through the city, displaying banners reading "We demand new elections" and "Down with the dictator." The Iranian community in the northern German city is among the largest in Europe [see photo].

2:25pm PT - FOXNews - Unconfirmed reports have 40 deaths and hundreds injured from clashes in today's protest activities.

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recommend This comment thread is now closed

Amy Judd

at 07:06 on June 20th, 2009

Linking all the coverage together:

Iran Opposition Protests

Chosky on Iran: 'situation very grave for Iranian people'

Amy Judd

at 09:20 on June 20th, 2009

Some info about the blast from Al Jazeera:

"A terrorist detonated his explosive vest in the Imam Khomeini shrine ... [causing] damage in one section of it," Hossein Sajedinia, Iran's deputy police chief for operations, told the Mehr news agency.

Al Jazeera's Teymoor Nabili, who recently returned from covering the Iranian presidential election, said that many people would believe the explosion was "a government conspiracy".

"The official media is widely distrusted ... so irrespective of who really carried out that bombing, I am sure that the protesters on the street will feel that the government has simply engineered something to blame them for something else," he said.