Clashes continue overnight; death toll rises to 10

An Iranian protester waving a flag on top of a building in downtown Tehran.

Clashes between opposition protesters in Tehran continued overnight; police have now killed at least ten people and wounded hundreds more, and the regime has rounded up a number of prominent opposition leaders, according to witnesses and opposition Web sites.

Police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who continued demonstrating into the early morning hours. Opposition Web sites reported that yesterday's clashes extended well outside of Tehran; reformists reported demonstrations in Shiraz, Tabriz, Isfahan, Najafabad, and several other cities around the country.

Most of the deaths happened yesterday, when riot police opened fire on groups of protesters. The victims haven't been identified -- except for Seyed Ali Mousavi, the nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Mousavi's family says it cannot hold a funeral for Ali because his body was mysteriously removed from the hospital.

The regime also reportedly rounded up at least seven opposition leaders, including Ibrahim Yazdi, a former foreign minister, and Emad Baghi, a human rights activist. Several aides to Mousavi were also arrested, including Ali Reza Beheshti, his top adviser.

In a statement to the Rah-e Sabz opposition Web site, Mehdi Karroubi slammed the regime for cracking down on protests during Ashura, saying that even the shah's regime respected the holiday.

"What has really happened that (caused the ruling system) spilled the blood of people on the day of Ashoura and gets a group of savage individuals confronting people?"

The Rah-e Sabz Web site is currently down; a message says it's under attack. We'll post a link to the full statement when it's available.

Reformists have posted some truly remarkable videos of yesterday's protests. In this one, protesters appear to attack a Basij van and free a group of prisoners (h/t Juan Cole):

The big question now, clearly, is "what happens next?" Meir Javendafar calls this weekend the start of an Iranian intifada; Robin Wright dubs it Iran's Berlin wall moment.

And it's true that the events of the last week seem to mark a turning point for the Green Movement. The regime's actions -- assaulting people in Isfahan as they mourned Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, killing Mousavi's nephew, shooting protesters during Ashura -- undermine its already tenuous moral standing. The regime is seen as illegitimate by an increasing number of Iranians.

Particularly ominous -- from where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sits -- are the comparisons to the shah's regime, and the reports yesterday that police refused to open fire on protesters. The regime increasingly depends on the security forces to retain its grip on power. If it loses the former, it loses the latter.

Where does the Green Movement go from here, though? The movement contains a wide array of ideologies; there are genuine revolutionaries who want to topple the existing order, and there are more moderate members -- personified by Mousavi and Karroubi -- who seek limited changes within the existing system.

It's clear what the Green Movement opposes -- but it's unclear what they seek to replace it with.

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