The clerical regime's authorities hanged four prisoners in public this morning in the southwestern  Iranian city of Ahwaz, capital of the oil-rich Khuzistan province, according to reports from Iran.

The prisoners were hanged at Salman Farsi Intersection. The Revolutionary Guards left the bodied dangling for hours to terrorize the local population.

As the clerical regime's factional infighting aggravates relentlessly and amid increasing public protests and antigovernment uprisings throughout the country, the ruling mullahs have stepped up the execution of prisoners in public in a bid to instill
fear in the people and stem the rise of social unrest.

The authorities in the southeastern city of Zahedan, capital of Iranian Baluchistan, executed two brothers from Gamshadzahi tribe. Several other members of the tribe, all of them opponents of the mullahs' regime, have been executed in Baluchistan in the past few weeks.

In Tehran, on the orders of Religious Judge Rahbarpour, head of the capital's Islamic Revolutionary Court, several opponents of the regime, were executed. They included Abdollah Amini, Ruhollah Kadkhodazadeh and Lafteh Fazilehpour.
 

U.S. Says Iran in 'Turmoil', United Press International, June 17

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials say the streets of Iran are in a state of "turmoil," pitting student demonstrators demanding more freedom against club-wielding Islamic Revolutionary Guards.

Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk, the State Department's top official for the Middle East, said today that underneath the violent confrontations lie a struggle for power between President Mohammad Khatami and the Islamic fundamentalist mullahs that enforce strict religious rule.

"There's a good deal of turmoil going on there at the moment, manifesting itself in students taking to the street," Indyk said during a symposium for reporters from media outside Washington and New York.

"It's resulting in a strong backlash among the Revolutionary Guard, who are also taking to the streets and beating the students."

Although a few Western reporters and news agencies are allowed to operate in Iran, there has been scant reporting on the confrontations between Iranian students and the Revolutionary Guardsmen since Khatami's election nearly one year ago.
 

Mullahs' Desperate Attempt to Smear the Resistance, Associated Press, June 17

PARIS -- Iranian exile groups have threatened to disrupt the politically charged World Cup match between Iran and the United States, the head of international soccer said today.

The largest opposition group, the Mujahedeen Khalq, denied through a Paris spokesman that the exiles were threatening to disrupt the match and accused Tehran of trying to smear the group.

The group's National Council of Resistance actively but peacefully lobbies against the Tehran regime in Washington, Paris and other Western capitals, promoting its cause via the media and national legislatures.

Several representatives of the Mujahedeen, including a brother of [Massoud] Rajavi [President of he National Council of Resistance], have been killed in attacks the group blames on the Iranian government.
 

Iran Upset Over Film on French TV, Associated Press, June 17

FRANCE -- Instead of thinking about its next match, the politically charged game with the United States, the Iranian soccer team is furious about a movie.

The film, "Not Without My Daughter," was shown on a privately owned French television station Monday night. It portrays Iranians as dirty, boorish and cruel, obsessed with their Islamic religion and its attitudes toward women.

"We see this as nothing but a political exercise and as an insult to our country, our government and our players," Safaei Farahani, head of Iran's soccer federation, said. "We hold the French government responsible for allowing the screening of the film ..."

"In France, the media is independent," French Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman, Yves Doutriaux said at a daily briefing.
 

Man Convicted of Selling Poison Gas Material to Iran, Reuters, June 17

TEL AVIV - An Israeli court on Wednesday convicted an Israeli businessman of aiding an enemy state by selling poison gas material and chemical weapons equipment to Iran.

Prosecutors had charged that the businessman supplied Iran with material to produce mustard and nerve gas and equipment to build munitions factories for chemical warheads. According to the charge sheet, Manbar met several times in Europe with Magid Abasfur, identified in the indictment as head of the "Iranian chemical warfare project" and signed a contract with him.

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