Iran Police Gun Down Protesters, Protesters Fight Back (PHOTOS) (VIDEO)

HONOLULU - The Obama administration on Sunday strongly condemned the Iranian government's crackdown on protesters, offering its support to civilians "seeking to exercise their universal rights."

National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer on Sunday denounced Tehran's "unjust suppression of civilians" in a crackdown that has killed at least five people, including a nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

"Governing through fear and violence is never just," Hammer said.

Hammer quoted President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, saying "it is telling when governments fear the aspirations of their own people more than the power of any other nation."

Witnesses and opposition Web sites said Iranian security forces fired on stone-throwing protesters in the center of Iran's capital Sunday.

The protests began with thousands of opposition supporters chanting "Death to the dictator," a reference to hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as they marched in defiance of official warnings of a harsh crackdown on any demonstrations coinciding with Shiite Islam's most important observance, Ashoura. The observance commemorates the seventh-century death in battle of one of Shiite Islam's most beloved saints.

Security forces tried but failed to disperse protesters on a central Tehran street with tear gas, baton charges and warning shots. They then opened fire on protesters, said witnesses and the Rah-e-Sabz Web site.

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WARNING: The following images are violent. Some may contain blood and dead bodies.

This photo, taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran shows Iranian protestors beating police officers, during anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009. (AP Photo)

comments(3733)

WARNING: The following video contains extremely graphic images after the 1:50 mark.

Comments

[Beatriz09]

10:34 PM on 12/30/2009

Website that contains AMAZING videos of the protests ... especially the first one, where people are fighting the police and in the end winning the fight ... .

No free barbecues nor free cookies nor free metro tickets for these demonstrators (as was the case for the pro-government demonstrators today, 12.30.09), but apparently no fear neither ... hugh crowds overwhelming the police ... this is really incredible.

How desperate do you have to be to risk your life in this way ... how angry ... ?

(Videos are at the end of the page)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2009/12/selected-headlines-99.html

[leftionthenews]

05:48 PM on 12/30/2009

Your headline screams about police gunning down protesters, yet the photos show only protesters beating police! Then the video shows us a mob setting fire to things, hard to tell from the video but probably buildings, throwing large rocks at police vehicles, and then at the end someone is injured. It *appears* that he was hit by a car (shown damaged at the very end), which, considering there are dozens or hundreds of people running in the streets filled with traffic, can't be all that surprising.

Have police "gunned down" protesters? Perhaps. But nothing here proves or even suggests anything of the kind. Meanwhile, the Israeli military routinely guns down Palestinian protesters who *at worst* are throwing stones, and often are doing nothing. The outrage meter in the U.S. media (including Huffington Post)? Doesn't register for those events.

[raisethefist]

06:03 AM on 12/30/2009

Learn a thing or two from the folks in Iran and bring it home here in the belly of the BEAST. Don't think for a second that the U.S government represents the interests of the Iranian people. That's a fat old lie that's already been used in the past. The only interests the U.S government represents in Iran is political control over the Iranian people, not for them. We've already learned that from too many other situations. Iraq being one of the most recent, also including Haiti, Mel Zelaya in Honduras, and countless others.

freedom to the death.

[raisethefist]

06:03 AM on 12/30/2009

The fact of the matter is most governments around the world are afraid of their people rather than here in the U.S where people are afraid of their government. A cop kills a kid in Athens, Greece, or in France, and there's huge uprisings, riots, fires, police get shot, and this continues for a good while. When police kill another unarmed person of color in cold blood, it's just another day. We turn to the TV for the info and life (or death) and business continues as usual. If people in the U.S really want to stand with the people in Iran then they need to stop just blogging about this and posting on facebook, and perhaps go out into the streets and show some solidarity, and one of the ways you can do that is by challenging this oppressive and illegitimate US government that's about to send 30,000 more tropps to Afghanistan. Take some real action and let those in power know that if they want to bring the fire they got to face the prairie fire here at home.. But instead everybody in the US just wants to wage a "quiet complaint" or "nice protest" and wait for some fake stimulus poop to come around because that's what american people believe in, politics and distractions...

[raisethefist]

06:02 AM on 12/30/2009

hopefully people in the U.S can learn a thing or two from those in Iran who are still fighting against an illegitimate government. When Bush was in office nothing happened in the U.S. Sure you had nice protests with banners and puppets. But didn't do squat. People want everything handed to them in the U.S and even the so-called activist culture has been conditioned the same way. There comes a time when you need to abandon the soft tactics that only limit the necessary threat of revolution. There comes a time when you have to fight fire with fire. Surely everyone around the world understands this. But folks in the U.S are still waaaay far behind when it comes to standing up against oppressive conditions. And you can't say that conditions in the U.S aren't as oppressive as other places around the world because that's straight up bolony.

[Blitzschnell]

07:05 PM on 12/29/2009

Hopefully, the security forces will soon go over to the side of the protestors. That could be a real turning point in this struggle and reduce further bloodshed. My heart goes out to the Iranian people in their struggle for freedom.

[joabear]

12:22 AM on 12/29/2009

The Tipping Point in Iran
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703278604574624302036557422.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[sense oar sheep]

12:14 AM on 12/29/2009

i know i ranted yesterday about this but,

this photo is a Life Photo of the Decade if not a Life Photo of the Century

so powerful

i'd like to thank the anonymous photographer for sharing

[joabear]

12:03 AM on 12/29/2009

Iran’s War on Its People
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/opinion/29tue1.html

[joabear]

09:24 PM on 12/28/2009

Video: Reza Sayah answers questions on CNN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRaa5QLxy5k&feature=player_embedded

[Beatriz09]

09:59 PM on 12/28/2009

THANKS!

You said earlier that almost all opposition figures able to organize the green movement seem to be emprisoned, which made it less likely for the movement to succeed ... but don't you think M. Sayah is right when he's saying that these protests are the results of different groups, some simply wanting an election, others wanting Mousavi as president, still others wanting to abandon theocracy etc.?

If yes, I think M. Sayah is right too when he's saying that it will not be easy to stop this, as the "official" opposition leaders are only part of this movement, not really what is triggering it.

You don't need a big organization to simply disrupt a regime. You only need a certain level of hate towards the regime or the president or Khamenei, and people who are not afraid to be jailed or to be beaten, who even dare to attack the police or Basij themselves .. . The more chaotic the opposition movement becomes, the more difficult it will be to stop them, no ... ?

[joabear]

12:05 AM on 12/29/2009

The un-representative and repressive regime in place is taking a swift downward spiral to . . That the movement is without one organization or one leader is the most potent part of the picture. I can’t help but admire the people who are expressing themselves so unequivocally and bravely in the face of such repression.

[lizr]

12:06 AM on 12/29/2009

Rachel and the expert on HER show tonight think the opp is winning.

I tend to agree, think it's why O is finally showing support for the potential winners.

[Salfana]

08:15 PM on 12/28/2009

You have been very involved for the Iranian cause. Lots of comments and information very enlightening for people who do not follow those events. I must tell you I followed the Iranian election and post-elections events mostly on Enduring America and several others. I rarely comment because I feel I do not know enough about Iran. Perhaps, when I feel I can contribute something I will.

All this to say you deserve the thanks. Got to fan you now.

[Salfana]

08:20 PM on 12/28/2009

Oops! This was intended to joabear.

[joabear]

08:43 PM on 12/28/2009

Thank you for reading my links. Knowledge is power.

[Bruckley]

06:12 PM on 12/28/2009

Well, if it wouldn't help them or us to openly support them, then we should be sending them money and supplies and helping the protesters in any other covert way possible. Who doesn't want to see these people be free of their repression?

[Flavor]

08:17 PM on 12/28/2009

Well said!

[lizr]

12:08 AM on 12/29/2009

thank you.

No id.i.o.t is talking about in.vasion, unless it's the belli.co.se I.s.r....a..e...lis

who are always talking about it. And trying to get us to do it for them.

[joabear]

06:10 PM on 12/28/2009

Russia' take on Iran:

This video is from a Russian-funded, English speaking braodcast channel in Europe, 'Russia Today":



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Kr1vOMUkI

[Beatriz09]

06:33 PM on 12/28/2009

Strange video (thanks for reposting, the first link didn't work, in my case).

M. Marandi, whom we've also heard this summer defending the government's view, simply repeats the official version, and while he goes on in his calm and monotonous way, you see images of protesters, flames, shouting ... . It's quite a contrast ... .

So M. Mousavi is isolating himself he says ... if that is the case, how is it possible that months after the election protests continue all over the country ... ?

[joabear]

07:11 PM on 12/28/2009

Precisely. I don't know to what extent Russia is involved in the rigged election coup and its bloody aftermath. But it's worth investigating.

[DannyEV]

10:30 PM on 12/28/2009

I'm interested by his claim that American and English news media are responsible for the continuing "propagation" of the protests.

the people of Iran would love to hear that....jeez.

[Kaviraj]

06:05 PM on 12/28/2009

This is from the BBC - They admit al-Qaida never existed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-hYorNi0nA&feature=player_embedded#

[joabear]

06:01 PM on 12/28/2009

There have been massive rallies with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators on the streets of many cities in Iran for the last few days. Many have been killed and injured, yet the BBC has hardly covered this in their news.
It is well known that as Iran's biggest trading partner, European countries have been tacitly supporting the terrorist regime of the Islamic Republic. However, this regime's days are numbered, and it seems that the BBC is still insisting on backing the wrong horse.