Iran security forces attack pro-reform demonstrators

Iranian pro-reform demonstrators take to the streets on second anniversary of disputed 2009 elections.

Iran's opposition website Sahamnews said security forces attacked pro-reform demonstrators gathering in Tehran on Sunday to mark the anniversary of the country's 2009 disputed election.

"Security forces attacked the crowd with electric batons ... in the Vali-e Asr street to disperse the demonstrators," Sahamnews said. The site added that they said that while several demonstrators were arrested, there was no official confirmation.

The reports could not be independently verified as the government has prohibited Western media from covering opposition protests.

Another opposition website, Kaleme, said "hundreds of demonstrators" were arrested by the security forces.

Witnesses said thousands of security personnel were deployed in Tehran to stop any revival of anti-government protests that followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election in 2009.

Opposition websites had called for a "silent rally" to mark the vote, in an attempt to avoid clashes with police.

Reformists claim the 2009 elections were rigged to secure the hardliner president's win. Authorities, however, claim the election was the most legitimate since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Sahamnews also said supporters of the opposition gathered in other parts of the city.

"Shopkeepers were ordered to close down their shops ... hundreds of people have gathered in other areas of Tehran," the website said.

Sunday's protests were overshadowed by the sudden death of Iranian dissident and journalist Reza Hoda Saber, who suffered a heart attack while on a hunger strike.

The 54-year-old journalist and dissident died in a Tehran hospital where he was transferred from Evin prison.

Saber went on a hunger strike for 10 days to protest the suspicious death of fellow dissident Haleh Sahabi during her father Ezatollah Sahabi's funeral earlier this month.

Saber's sister, Firouzeh Hoda Saber, confirmed the journalist's death after she identified his body at the coroner's office, ISNA news agency reported.

Saber was a member of an Iranian nationalist movement and was jailed following the presidential elections in 2009 and the protests that ensued over alleged election fraud.

Source: Haaretz and other News agencies