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Pro-Clergy Militants Arrested in Iran
9 minutes ago

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line judiciary arrested "scores" of pro-clergy militants Saturday, including a vigilante leader, over attacks on a Tehran student dormitory sparked by attacks on pro-reform supporters, state-run radio reported.

"Scores of people who suspiciously attacked a dormitory and inflicted damages have been identified and arrested," Tehran Radio quoted a judiciary statement as saying Saturday.

Students said dozens of armed vigilantes — who pledge allegiance to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — attacked students sleeping in their rooms in the Hemmat dormitory of Allameh Tabatabai University and Tehran University's Chamran dormitory before dawn Saturday. More than 50 students were reportedly injured.

Tehran Radio said among those arrested was Saeed Asghar, a vigilante leader who two years ago shot and seriously wounded a top adviser to reformist President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites).

The arrests came after police authorities, under pressure from reformers, demanded legal action against vigilantes who have taken the law into their hands to punish demonstrators and onlookers in the capital since protests broke on Tuesday.

"Most of detainees are ruffians with previous (police) records," the radio quoted the statement as saying.

The broadcast gave no further details.

"We were sleeping in our beds. Suddenly we heard windows being smashed. Fists and kicks by hard-line vigilantes woke up some of the students held up in their rooms," Allameh Tabatabai University student Mojtaba Najafi said.

The Tehran dorm attacks followed overnight clashes between hundreds of pro-cleric militants and security forces with Iranians throughout the capital.

Friday's standoffs were the most intense and widespread of four consecutive nights of protests in Tehran, which were sparked by university students and snowballed into broader displays of opposition to Iran's clerical establishment.

"The broadcast gave no further details."

Like what happened to the students who were made to disappear by those 'vigilantes'...who will probably be out on the streets tomorrow anyway. Interesting a guy who attempted an assassination against a government official in a country that has an Islamist regime was out on the street to victimize student demonstrators. You'd almost think that sort of thing is legal in Iran or something...as long as it happens to a member of Khatami's faction, that is.