Social unrest continues in Iran after questionable election results

Iranian police again clashed on Sunday with demonstrators protesting in Tehran against the re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad following the arrest of more than 100 reformists.

Police fired on supporters of defeated moderate Mir Hossein Mousavi who had gathered in the city center, chanting his name and throwing stones at police. The police chief said that unofficial gatherings would not be permitted.

Thousands of Mousavi supporters swept through Tehran in protest

Police on motorcycles drove through the crowd to disperse the protesters. At least one person, a woman, was injured. Police briefly detained journalists filming the violence.

The unrest that has rocked Tehran and several other cities since official results were declared on Saturday is the sharpest expression of discontent with Iran’s leadership for years and appears to have galvanized a grass-roots movement for change in the Islamic republic, where 60 percent of the population was born after the revolution.

Officials blocked communication in the capital, closing down Iran’s main cellular phone network, SMS mobile phone messaging services and blocking several reformist websites and social networking site Facebook.

Al Arabiya’s Tehran bureau was closed for a week beginning Sunday without explanation by the ministry charged with foreign press accreditation.

Protests also broke out on Saturday in the cities of Tabriz, Orumieh, Hamedan and Rasht, where crowds chanted for Mousavi.

In Isfahan, police made arrests after students at Sanati University set equipment and furniture on fire, a witness said.