CAIRO — Iranian authorities fought students with tear gas
and batons Monday in violent clashes on university campuses, the biggest
anti-government demonstrations in months, according to Iranian news accounts
and opposition Web sites.
Despite extraordinary measures to prevent news coverage of
the events — including banning foreign journalists, locking down campuses and
slowing Internet and cell-phone service — eyewitness accounts and amateur
videos flooded the Web from early morning.
Official news agencies, which initially didn’t mention the
protests, were forced to acknowledging the unrest by late afternoon, when most
major international TV news channels were broadcasting student-shot footage.
The footage showed protesters burning posters of the Iranian
leadership, waving Iranian tricolor flags without the emblem of the Islamic
Republic and chanting “Death to the dictator” as they marched at
Tehran University.
Pro-government students held a smaller counter-protest on
the campus, waving pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and
chanting “Death to the hypocrites,” news agencies reported.
Skirmishes broke out between the camps, according to the reports.
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
