Mousavi supporters clash with police in Tehran

Reformist website Mowjcamp said police opened fire on protesters at Haft-e Tir square, but there was no independent confirmation of the report. "Some people were injured," Mowjcamp said, reporting other protests in the cities of Shiraz and Rasht.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards and their allied Basij militia had warned the opposition not to try to hijack an annual anti-U.S. rally to revive protests against the clerical establishment after June's disputed presidential election.

"Police clashed with hundreds of protesters. They were chanting: 'Death to dictators'. Police used batons to disperse them," a witness said. People traditionally chant, "Death to America" at the annual state-organized rally.

The crackdown showed no compromise from the leadership, underlined by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's recent comment that it was a crime to question the June 12 vote which secured the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Defeated presidential candidates Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, who are committed to reform, had urged supporters to take to the streets on Wednesday to protest against the government despite warnings from the security forces about "illegal gatherings."

Karoubi, who joined the protests on Wednesday, was attacked by plainclothes officers, his website Tagheer said. "One of his bodyguards was hospitalized." There were no further details.

Police fired teargas at the crowd and arrested at least five protesters, one witness said. Mobile phone networks were shut down to try to prevent protesters from organizing while Basij militia on motorbikes drove at crowds and used batons.

"There are hundreds, chanting 'God is greatest'. Police and Basij militia are outnumbering the protesters," one witness said. "Hundreds of police, riot police, Basij militia and plainclothes officers are in the main squares," another said.

The turmoil after the June vote was the worst in Iran since protests which led to the ouster of the U.S.-backed Shah three decades ago. Authorities denied vote-rigging and portrayed the unrest as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the Islamic state.

Iran has been rocked by the street protests which have also exposed serious rifts over reform in the clerical leadership, already under international pressure over its nuclear program.

Washington fears Iran is seeking a nuclear bomb and has threatened more sanctions through the United Nations. Tehran says its nuclear program aims to generate electricity.

OFFICIAL RALLY

In September, opposition protesters clashed with government backers and police at annual government pro-Palestinian rallies.

Thousands of people gathered in front of the former U.S. embassy for the latest state-organized rally where influential lawmaker Gholamali Haddadadel criticized the opposition leaders.

"I don't know how they (opposition leaders) are going to answer to the great Iranian nation. They claim they are followers of the revolution but issue statements that are in the interests of Iran's enemies," he said in a speech.

Haddadadel said the U.S. administration should change its policy toward Iran's nuclear energy program: "No one in Iran can make a deal on Iran's obvious right to nuclear technology."
U.S. President Barack Obama used the anniversary of the hostage crisis to urge Tehran to make concessions over its nuclear program, saying it needs to turn the page on the past and forge a new relationship with the United States.

"Iran must choose," Obama said. "We have heard for 30 years what the Iranian government is against; the question, now, is what kind of future it is for."

The nuclear question and relations with the West have also caused deep divisions alongside the political furor.

"There is real domestic turmoil in Iran," said Mark Fitzpatrick, senior non-proliferation fellow at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies.