Iranians chant slogans during a student protest against the hard-line clerics that rule the country. “The clerical regime is nearing its end,” the protesters shouted. The rally turned violent. Photo by AP
Riot police and hard-line vigilantes clashed with teenage demonstrators who denounced supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Wednesday, as protests mushroomed into Iran's biggest in months. Dozens of the hard-liners riding motorbikes chased down about 300 protesters, beating them with sticks in the streets outside a Tehran University dormitory. The protesters chanted "Death to Khamenei" and threw stones at police, who threw them back. About 200 students in the dormitory compound threw stones and molotov cocktails at the police after officers joined the vigilantes in attacking the protesters. Several people were seen being carried away with head injuries. The protests began peacefully Tuesday when a small student gathering against privatization of universities turned into the largest demonstration against Iran's political leadership since November. Then, students protested a death sentence imposed on Hashem Aghajari, a history professor at a Tehran teachers' college, who questioned the need to obey the Islamic clerics' every edict.