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BBC, February 25 - Unidentified assailants have sprayed the headquarters of one of the main political factions in Iran with automaticgunfire.
The office building on a busy street in central Tehran was full of party workers at the time as final preparations were underway for hotly-contested local elections throughout Iran on Friday.
According to eye-witnesses, two men on motorcycles drew up outside the building, fired some shots in the air then sprayed the front of the building with automaticgunfire, before escaping.
Nobody was hit directly by the shooting, though two women were taken to hospital suffering from cuts and shock.
The building was the headquarters of the "Executives of Construction". The party is the political faction, which generally follows the line of the former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani.
The attack came just hours after President Khatami and his new Intelligence Minister, Ali Unusi, had told parliament that the Iranian intelligence apparatus would ensure security for all.
Associated Press, February 25 - On Wednesday, a raucous group burst into a mosque in the town of Karaj and disrupted a speech by Azam Taleqani [a woman who is running for the council] the Arya newspaper reported.
It said she escaped with "slight injuries." The troublemakers smashed windows.
Iran daily, February 21 - We were informed that unknown assailants attacked the election headquarters of the "Participation Front" on Friday and damaged two vehicles belonging to members of the Party. Alireza Moqadam-Panah, a member of the election headquarters said: "Around 9:00 p.m., I went to the front door when I heard that the windows of the building were being broken. At that time, I heard the sound of gunfire, from a 32mm or 38mm revolver… After inspecting two vehicles, we realized that their tires had been punctured and the windshield of one vehicle was broken."
Ressalat, February 21
- A man, Hassan Ahamdi, from Shahmirzad was killed on Friday by Alireza
Mahmoodian from the village of Parvar in Semnan. The killing was over disputes
during the election campaign.
Iran Exiles, Majority of Italy MPs Denounce Khatami Visit, Reuter, February 25
ROME - Italian parliamentarians and Iran's exiled opposition said on Thursday it was a bitter irony that Iranian President Mohammed Khatami's forthcoming visit to Italy would begin on International Women's Day.
"It's a bit of a joke that Khatami is arriving on March 8, International Women's Day," communist deputy Maria Celeste Nardini told a news conference in Italy's lower house of parliament. "The rights of all Iranian citizens, but above all women, have been abused."
Marco Taradash, deputy of the conservative Forza Italia party, said 320 members of both houses of parliament opposed Khatami's visit. Italy's parliament is composed of 630 lower house deputies and 315 upper house Senators.
Conservative deputy Cristina Matranga called hosting Khatami "an unfortunate choice by the Italian government -- and March 8 is also an unfortunate date."
"It seems like a joke, a game -- but you don't play around with human rights," she told the news conference.
The exiled National Council of Resistance of Iran fiercely opposes Khatami's visit to Europe. It plans a mass demonstration in central Rome on March 9.
Mitra Bagheri, Italy representative
of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, told Thursday's news conference:
"The current ties between the Italian government and the clerical regime,
particularly the scheduled visit by Khatami to this country, will remain
as dark chapters in the history of relations between the two countries."
Mullahs' Preparing For War Games in Kurdistan Province After Killing Several Iranian Kurds, Agence France Presse, February 25
TEHRAN - Iran's army will stage war games in the western province of Kurdistan, where violent demonstrations took place over the capture of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, a military official said Thursday.
The announcement follows several days of violence that erupted in several towns in Kurdistan following Turkey's capture last week of Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
The English-language Tehran Times reported Wednesday that three people were killed on Monday during pro-Ocalan protests in Sanandaj, capital of Kurdistan province.
Iran's Kurdish community numbers between five and six million people, most of whom live in the west of the country.