Tehran protesters clash with police
A few hundred supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have clashed with riot police on streets near Iran's parliament.
Witnesses police beat the protesters in Baharestan Square with batons and fired tear gas canisters and rounds of ammunition into the air.
They said some demonstrators retaliated while others fled about a mile north to Sepah Square.
Amateur video posted on YouTube showed groups of young people chanting on a Tehran street despite restrictions likened by Mr Mousavi's wife to "martial law".
One video showed men and women throwing rocks and pushing barricades, one blazing, while others chanted: "Death to the dictator!"
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier warned that the Islamic regime would not yield to demonstrators who want a disputed presidential election annulled, effectively closing the door to compromise with the opposition.
But Zahra Rahnavard, Mr Mousavi's wife, said protesters were refusing to buckle under a situation she compared to martial law and were going ahead with a planned rally outside Iran's parliament.
A helicopter could be seen hovering over central Tehran and a witness who walked through Baharestan Square in front of the parliament building said it was protected by hundreds of riot police who did not allow people to even briefly gather. Thousands more security officers filled the surrounding streets, said the witness, who declined to give his name for fear of government reprisals.
Mr Mousavi's website had distanced him from the planned protest, calling it independent, but his wife - a former university dean who campaigned alongside him - insisted his followers had the constitutional right to protest and the government should not deal with them "as if martial law has been imposed in the streets". She called for the release of all activists and others arrested at protests.
Mr Mousavi, a former prime minister, saw his campaign transform into a protest movement after the government declared that hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the June 12 election. He claimed the result was fraudulent and Western analysts who have examined available data on the vote agreed there were indications of manipulation.
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