Iranian security forces cracked down hard on students who came out in support of the opposition today as the regime sought to limit media coverage of another day of protests in and beyond.
Video footage that managed to evade official censorship showed crowds chanting "death to dictatorship" and making V for victory signs on the campus of Tehran University.
State media confirmed there had been trouble but blamed "rioters who were not students" clashing with police who surrounded the site. Reports mentioned police using teargas, batons and stun guns to beat back demonstrators.
Mowjcamp, a reformist website, said security forces had fired into the air to disperse crowds in Enqelab Square, in the centre of the capital. Clashes were reported in Vali Asr Square. Protesters taunted basij militiamen with bank-notes, suggesting their loyalty had been bought.
Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims he won this summer's disputed presidential election, came out on national students' day in defiance of a on demonstrations, repeating the trick of mounting protests on public holidays that the regime would be reluctant to cancel.
Mousavi issued a statement challenging the authorities. "You fight people on the streets, but you are constantly losing your dignity in people's minds," he said. "Even if you silence all the universities, what are you going to do with society?"
Mehdi Karroubi, the other defeated reformist presidential candidate, warned against a crackdown. "Repression is not at all the solution, neither today or tomorrow," he told Le Monde.
The few foreign journalists still in Tehran were ordered not to cover the protests. Mobile phone networks were reportedly shut down to prevent opposition supporters from communicating with each other.
Tehran residents had complained for days of being unable to use email, while opposition websites were being more tightly restricted than before.
The Revolutionary Guards, loyal to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned the opposition movement not to exploit students' day, which commemorates the killing of students during an anti-American rally in 1953.
Protests were also reported at Tehran's Amir Kabir University and at universities
Nails in Mashhad, Kermanshah and Kerman. More demonstrations are planned to mark the 10-day Shia festival of , which starts on 18 December. The latest protests, coming nearly six months after June's election, showed again that the opposition movement is far from being crushed, but it was also clear that forceful action by the regime can still easily contain it.
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