16 Azar: Not Over Yet

Enduring America sounds the alarm:

Students in Tehran University were viciously attacked today by security forces and Basijis today as they tried to demonstrations.

There are two conflicting reasons for the tensions and clashes. The first scenario is that students walked out of classes to protest in front of the Technical Faculty of the University against the arrest of their classmates yesterday. With the expectation of another day of protests in light of student calls for a fresh round of dissent, security was already tight, with the university besieged by thousands of security forces. As the students tried to gather in front of the Faculty, security forces stormed the campus.

The second scenario is that security forces stormed the university first and started beating students as they sat in classes. So far, the first scenario seems to have more eye-witness support.

More here. The NYT reports:

Iran’s broadest and most violent protest in months spilled over into a second day on Tuesday, as bloody clashes broke out on university campuses between students chanting antigovernment slogans and the police and Basij militia members.

As the scale of Monday’s demonstrations became clearer, Tehran’s police chief announced that 204 people had been arrested in the capital, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported. The clashes took place on campuses in cities across the country, as students and opposition members took advantage of National Student Day to vent their rage despite a lengthy and wide-ranging government effort to forestall them.

The violence continued Tuesday on the campus of Tehran University, where security forces were using tear gas and arresting students, according to reports and video clips relayed through Twitter and Internet postings. There were protests at large squares near the university as well, witnesses said. Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported that the clashes began after groups of pro-government students carrying pictures of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, clashed with protesters on campus.

The new violence came as Iran’s chief prosecutor, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehi, warned of even harsher measures if the protests do not cease.

(Hat tip: Robert Mackey)

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