Police clash with protesters at Iran university

Tehran, Iran - Witnesses say security forces and pro-government militia with clubs and tear gas collide with thousands of opposition demonstrators outside Tehran University on a day of student demonstrations planned.

Witnesses say militia Basiji went into the crowd of demonstrators, beating men and women in the head and shoulders with batons, while security forces fired tear gas.

Thousands of security forces surrounded the universities before the protests of pro-reform students called for Monday. It is unknown if the demonstrations broke out inside the campus since the authorities have taken drastic steps to seal them off, closing cell phones in the area and covered with banners and placards fences to hide anything going on inside.

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TEHRAN (AP) - Thousands of riot police and members of the Revolutionary Guards, armed with tear gas, batons and guns were deployed Monday in front of Tehran University to prevent student demonstrations backed by the opposition.

The vast security operation suggested that the authorities planned to fulfill his promise to deal harshly with the protesters to commemorate the day in 1953 when three students were killed in an anti-US protest. The occasion in recent years has been used by students to demonstrate in favor of reform.

No information was immediately available about whether the demonstrations have started on campus, but witnesses said police were carrying out identity checks on anyone entering the campus to prevent opposition activists to join the students.

Security forces also tried to hide the campus from public view, covering the front door and the wall of placards others by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and congratulatory messages marking the occasion celebrated important Shiite Sunday .

The deployment of security forces outside the Tehran University led most shops and businesses in the area shot down. Life in the rest of the city, however, appeared to continue normally.

Journalists working for foreign organizations of the media are banned from covering the protests planned on Monday. They were told Saturday night by the Ministry of Culture that their press cards would be suspended for three days starting Monday.

On Sunday night, government opponents battled heavy rain to climb onto the roofs of Tehran and shouting "Allahu Akbar" and "Death to the dictator". Also Sunday, authorities choked Internet access for denying the opposition a vital means of communication used in the past to mobilize their supporters.

Opponents of the Government expects a large turnout of Monday demonstrations to show his movement still has momentum despite a series of repressive measures the government since the country's presidential election in dispute in June.

Opposition Leader Mir Hossein Mousavi endorsed the planned student demonstrations and declared that his movement was still alive. A statement posted on its Web site said the establishment of office can not silence students and was losing legitimacy in the minds of the Iranian people.

"A great nation can not remain silent when some confiscate their vote," said Mousavi, who said that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election victory stolen June 12 from him by fraud.

Khamenei, Supreme Leader has the final word on all state matters, accused the opposition Sunday of the exposure of divisions within the country and create opportunities for Iran's enemies.

Iran's universities have been strongholds of the opposition that emerged from the June election in dispute, and the authorities have besieged campuses nationwide with a wave of arrests and expulsions of students.

The pro-government Basij militia also recruited informants in schools to denounce the rioters from the opposition, according to students.

Despite heavy rain on Sunday night on the roof shouting "Allahu Akbar" or "God is Great" and "Death to the dictator" was heard in many parts of Tehran on Sunday night. The protest was repeated one of the main tactics of the anti-Shah Islamic Revolution in 1979 and was revived in the days and weeks after disputed elections.

The edges of the roof had not been heard since the last attempt by the opposition to mobilize, 4 November, coinciding with the state-sanctioned rally events to mark the anniversary of the taking of U.S. Embassy 1979. That demonstration drew far fewer protesters at the height of the riots of the summer. But even provoked a violent response from security forces.

For several weeks after the disputed presidential election of June, demonstrations triggered by allegations of massive fraud in the vote to hundreds of thousands took to the streets, but the ruthless crackdown that followed has taken a heavy toll.

Trying to deny the protesters the opportunity to reassert his voice, authorities Internet connections slowed to a crawl in the capital. For some periods on Sunday, access to the site was completely closed - a tactic that was used before the event last month.

The government has not publicly acknowledged that is behind the cuts, but Internet service providers in Iran say the problem is not an end and not a technical failure.

Trying to limit journalists working for international media to their offices during the protests, the Ministry of Culture of Iran suspended the accreditation that enables them to inform the streets from Monday to Wednesday.

The ministry also warned the few remaining pro-reform newspapers not to publish "divisions" of material, the official IRNA news agency.

Much of street sweeping, the opposition is based on the Web and cell phone service to organize rallies and get your message.

The call was put out Monday's demonstrations in dozens of sites operated by supporters of opposition leaders and Mahdi Mousavi Karroubi, who ran against Ahmadinejad in the elections on 12 June. Most of these sites have been repeatedly blocked by the government, forcing the activists to create new ones.