Neda was shot dead at a protest in Tehran on Saturday

British journalist arrested in Iran after protests
Tehran 'like a war zone' after brutal crackdown, say witnesses
President Ahmadinejad compares Obama to Bush

Fresh images of violence on streets emerges

The family of You Tube martyr Neda Soltan - whose death has come to symbolise Iran's pro-democracy protests - has been forced by Iranian officials to move from their Tehran home, it has been claimed. 

Neighbours say that her family left their apartment in eastern Tehran after shocking images of her brutal killing were circulated around the world.

They also claim that police did not hand Neda's bloodied body back to her family, that her funeral was cancelled, that she was buried without her family's knowledge, and that the government banned mourning ceremonies at mosques.

'We just know that they [the family] were forced to leave their flat,' a neighbour said.

The claims were reported in The Guardian newspaper, but reporters were unable to contact the family directly to confirm if they had been forced to leave.

The Iranian government is retaliating to criticism over Neda's death by accusing protesters of killing her and describing her as a martyr of the Basij militia.

Javan, a pro-government newspaper, has gone so far as to blame the recently expelled BBC correspondent, Jon Leyne, of hiring 'thugs' to shoot her so he could make a documentary film.

The young woman was shot on Saturday evening near the scene of clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators.

Amid scenes of grief in the Soltan household, neighbours streamed onto the streets to protest at her death.

Shocking: YouTube footage of Neda's final moments have made her an icon around the world

But the police moved in quickly to quell any public displays of grief.

They soon arrived at the family flat, took down a black banner - a traditional sign of Persian mourning - and reportedly ordered the family to move out.

Since then, neighbours have received suspicious calls warning them not to discuss her death with anyone and not to make any protest.

Meanwhile a reporter with joint British and Greek nationality has been arrested in the country as part of a crackdown on foreign media.

Jason Fowden was arrested as he was attempting to leave the country at the end of last week

Jason Fowden, a Washington Times journalist was arrested as he tried to leave Iran at the end of last week, the Iranian news agency IRNA quoted a culture ministry official as saying.

The British Foreign Office said it was aware of the journalist's arrest and understood that Greek officials were providing consular assistance.

'We, of course, stand ready to help if needs be,' a spokeswoman for the department said.

Iran's intelligence minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said some people with British passports were involved in post-election violence in the Islamic Republic.

He also said one of those arrested was 'disguised as a journalist and he was collecting information needed by the enemies'.

Mohseni-Ejei said: 'Whoever, under any name or title, collects information in Iran will be arrested and so far a foreign journalist has been arrested.'

It is not known how many British passport holders are being held.

As a mass roundup continued across Iran,  President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad compared Barack Obama with his predecessor George Bush.

The leader said there was no point in talking to Washington unless the U.S. commander-in-chief apologised for remarks earlier this week.

Armed: Iranian security forces are seen sitting near the parliament buildings yesterday in Tehran

Mr Obama had said he was 'appalled and outraged' by the post-election crackdown and has since withdrawn Independence Day invitations to Iranian diplomats.

'He made a mistake to say those things ... our question is why he fell into this trap and said things that previously (former U.S. President George W.) Bush used to say,' Ahmadinejad said.

'Do you want to speak with this tone? If that is your stance then what is left to talk about... I hope you avoid interfering in Iran's affairs and express your regret in a way that the Iranian nation is informed of it.'

There are reports that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has accepted a request by the country's top legislative body the Guardian Council to extend the deadline by five days for receiving and looking into election complaints.

However Khamenei has insisted the Iranian establishment and people would not yield to any pressure over the country's disputed presidential election.

Thousands of police yesterday brutally suppressed a pro-democracy rally in central Tehran.

Witnesses compared the scene to a war zone and described one woman being beaten so savagely that she was drenched in blood and her husband fainted.

    

 

Fear: Images of violence in Iran recorded yesterday were revealed on the National Council of Resistance of Iran website

    

 

Bloody: An unidentified victim receives a savage beating

There were also unconfirmed reports that Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, had been arrested.

In a flurry of postings on blogs and Twitter, demonstrators described people being heavily beaten and shot.

There were claims that a girl had been hit by a hail of bullets and that the feared Basij paramilitaries were preventing people from getting to safety.

One blog, Revolutionary Road, claimed that there were 10,000 policemen massed in Baharestan Square in the south-east of the city.

Correspondents said there were army helicopters flying over the area and that police had used tear gas to suppress the protest.

The square itself had been blocked off, shops closed and the local train station also shut.

Heavy-handed: Police are bused into the centre of Tehran - more can be seen at the top of the picture following on foot

'The streets, squares around Baharestan is swarming with military forces, civilian forces, the security motorists,' one posting read.

'In Baharestan Square, the police shooting. A girl is shot and the police is not allowing them to help.

'The girl who was shot was taken to a private clinic, not known yet of her well being... alive or not.

'People's mobiles are being controlled in order to find pictures and videos of current violations.'

There were reports of multiple shootings and people being subjected to heavy beatings.

'We saw seven to eight militia beating one woman with baton on ground - she had no defense nothing,' another post read.'

Revolutionary Road has been one of the more reliable sources of information out of Iran since a media blackout came into force last week.

Reports of shooting in Baharestan Square also seemed to be backed up by Twitter.

IranFreedom3 tweeted: 'Huge number of arrests in Baharestan. They avoid any stoppage & arrest on the spot'

Another wrote: 'Situation today is terrible - they beat (people) like animals.'

Out of control: The armed police harass demonstrators on the streets

The regime's crackdown comes in the wake of a wave of arrests across the country.

Human rights workers estimate hundreds have been rounded up, including students, pro-democracy campaigners and workers.

The developments plunged Britain and Iran into an diplomatic row, the kind of which was last seen in the wake of the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Two British diplomats were expelled from Iran on Tuesday. In a tit-for-tat move, Gordon Brown revealed two Iranian diplomats were being kicked out of the UK.

‘Iran took the unjustified step of expelling two British diplomats over allegations which are absolutely without foundation,' he told the Commons.

‘In response to that action, we informed the Iranian ambassador that we would expel two Iranian diplomats from their embassy in London,’ he said.

Demonstrators gathered outside the British embassy in Tehran and burned British flags, as well as those of the U.S., France and Italy.

A group of about a hundred hardliners gathered in front of the building chanting ‘British embassy should be closed’ and ‘Down with Britain’ as tomatoes were hurled at the walls.

Hardline: Iran supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is reported to have accepted a request to extend the deadline by five days for receiving and looking into election complaints

One of the student leaders said: ‘We don't need to have such useless relations with Britain ... If Britain continues its interference in Iran, we will destroy their houses over their heads.'

Britain has ordered the families of British diplomats to leave Tehran and warned UK citizens against any non-essential travel to Iran as tensions have grown.

There are fears that there could be a repeat of the occupation of the U.S. Embassy in 1979, when students stormed the building and held 52 diplomats hostage for 444 days.

Britain has a long history of involvement in Iran and recent relations have been difficult.

Britain suspended its diplomatic ties after the Islamic revolution in 1979, only reopening an embassy in 1988, following the Iran-Iraq war.

Relations were downgraded again in the early 1990s, with full normalisation only taking place in 1998.






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