Iran forces clash with cleric's mourners

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian police clashed with mourners at a memorial service Wednesday for dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, arresting more than 50 and beating women and children, reports said.
In early morning, hundreds of police and security force members surrounded the Seyed Mosque in Isfahan where the service was to be held and prevented mourners from entering, sparking fierce clashes, opposition websites said.
The mourners were shouting slogans in support of Iran’s opposition Green Movement and police fired tear gas to disperse them, website Rahesabz.net said.
“Security forces are beating people including women and children with batons, chains and stones,” it said, adding “several have been arrested and many were injured.”
Parlemannews.ir, the website of Iran’s reformist minority faction in parliament, said “over 50 people, including four reporters, were arrested in clashes.”
The latest crackdown on the opposition comes a day after its main leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was sacked from his post as president of the Academy of Art, which the architect and painter had headed for 10 years.
Iranian authorities vowed to show “no tolerance” to protesters. “We advise this particular movement to stop its actions or those who disturb order will be severely dealt with according to law,” Iran’s police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam told the ISNA news agency.
His deputy General Ahmad Reza Radan said police would crack down on any illegal gatherings during Ashura.
“If during illegal gatherings no red lines are crossed, then police will give a simple warning,” Radan was quoted as saying by ISNA. “But if they are crossed, police will intervene and could arrest people,” he added, without specifying what constituted the red lines.
An aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the regime would take action against opposition leaders in “due time.” “Dealing with riot leaders has it own due time and we will act powerfully at the right time,” Mojtaba Zolnoor was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.