June 14, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1424

TEHRAN, June 13: Anti-government protesters took to Tehran’s streets for a third straight night on Friday, sparking several hours of clashes with police at a university campus, in which about 40 students were injured and 10 others arrested.

“About 200 members of the special forces, armed with batons and wearing helmets, invaded the campus at 1am (2030 GMT on Thursday). The clashes lasted until 8am,” a member of a student association said.

“About 40 students were injured, most of them only slightly. About 10 were arrested and another 100 are suffering from exposure to the tear-gas fired by the special forces,” he said, asking not to be named.

He said the students fought back with stones against the police forces, who were backed by the government’s volunteer militia, in the protest at Shahid Beheshti university, the capital’s second largest.

They also chanted slogans hostile to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, including “Death to the dictator” and “Khamenei, step down from the throne”.

The protesters returned to the streets of Tehran on Thursday night in defiance of warnings from Ayatollah Khamenei of a crackdown.

Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaking at Friday prayers at Tehran university, charged the United States was orchestrating the troubles in Iran.

“The freedom being offered by the Americans to the Iranian people is that of the sons of members of the Savak (the former shah’s dreaded secret police) ... and of counter-revolutionaries,” he said.

Rafsanjani, who remains an influential figure in the Iranian establishment, said the initial protests on Tuesday night were hijacked.

“Well-intentioned young students gathered because of concern over a (universities) privatization plan, something which was denied by the higher education ministry,” he said.

The protests have drawn strong support from the United States and new warnings to the religious establishment over its policies toward Iraq and its alleged nuclear weapons programme.

In another incident on Thursday night, about 100 students managed to break out of their university campus after midnight and take to the street after smashing down a door.—AFP