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BAGHDAD - The Mujahideen Khalq Iranian opposition group said on Tuesday that Iranian agents opened fire on a group's vehicle on a road north of Baghdad on Monday.
It said in a statement that Iranian "terrorists" had opened machinegun fire on a Mujahideen vehicle near the city of Khalis, 60 km north of the Iraqi capital, in an attempt to kill Mujahideen passengers. The statement made no mention of any casualties.
"The terrorists had laid an ambush alongside the highway, but had to escape when the Mujahideen returned fire. They left behind a number of hand grenades and bullets," the statement said.
The Mujahideen said the attack was the 67th "terrorist and military" operation by Iran since 1993 against their bases inside Iraq.
The Mujahideen said on Sunday that Iranian agents had tried to blow up a bus carrying a number of its members on a road north of Baghdad.
Mujahideen bases have been the target of air and rocket attacks by Iran. Their office in Baghdad, ringed by a concrete wall, has survived several mortar and bomb attacks.
Anti-Government Demonstration of 10,000 On East Tehran, Iran Zamin News Agency, October 20
Some 10,000 protesters staged an anti-government demonstration yesterday in Tehran Pars distinct (east of Tehran). Chanting "death to Khatami" and "death to Khamenei," the protesters demonstrated their fury and outrage against the leaders of the clerical regime in this act of protest, which broke out at 1:00 p.m. and continued until 6:00 o'clock in the afternoon. A statement by the National Council of Resistance of Iran reported that "the protest occurred after a heavy accident. The multitude of crowd blocked the neighborhood and made traffic impossible. At 4:30 p.m. the State Security Forces intervened, throwing tear gas and firing at the crowd. The protesters were dispersed at 6:00 p.m. after a large number of them were beaten up and several groups of people arrested." The statement added: "The protest took place after a truck entered a no-entry street in Tehran Pars district, running into three vehicles and a school bus! ! , ki lling at least five people, including two 14-year-old high school girls, and wounding at least 15 persons. The truck driver had bribed a state security force to enter the street."
Protest Forces Rafsanjani Daughter to Scrap Speech, Reuter, October 20
LEIDEN, Netherlands - The daughter of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani scrapped a scheduled speech at the opening of an Islamic institute on Tuesday after protesters invaded the auditorium.
A handful of Iranian demonstrators entered the auditorium, police said. Another 250 shouted slogans outside the hall, part of Leiden University, as Fa'ezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani arrived.
"Death to Rafsanjani...Rafsanjani's daughter out of the Netherlands," the protesters shouted.
Police could not confirm a local media report that one woman struck Rafsanjani.
In a statement, the Dutch office of the National Council of Iranian Resistance said Iran's clerical regime was using Rafsanjani's daughter to cover up alleged crimes against women.
According to a spokesman for the council, the protesters had no quarrel with the new institute's planned scientific and educational programs.
"But (we do have a problem) if they invite an agent of the Iranian regime to give a lecture about the merits of the Republic of Iran," the spokesman said.
[A statement by NCR reported that the protest "was held at the invitation of the Iranian Women's Association (Suppotres of the National Council of Rsistance of Iran). Iranians steressed that Fa'ezeh Hashemi is a deputy to a Majlis which lacks any legitimacy in the eyes of the Iranian People. One of this parliamnet's principla tasks has been to adopt suppressive and misogynous laws against women."]
More Scuffle in Pre-Election Campaign, Associated Press, October 20
TEHRAN - Riot police broke up a rally Tuesday at a Tehran stadium after hard-line vigilantes and protesters began scuffling.
The fighting began as Gholamhossein Karbaschi, the suspended mayor of Tehran, was urging the 3,000 people at the stadium to take part in Friday's elections for the Assembly of Experts, a body that elects the country's supreme leader.
A few hundred people from both sides shoved and pushed each other -- and at least a half-dozen were beaten -- before police intervened.
"There's no point in voting. They have already selected the members," complained Mahmoud Mir Bagheri, an engineering student.