Iranian demonstrators clashed violently with security forces on Friday as they again tried to storm the British embassy in Tehran, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Riot police made several baton charges to push back a crowd of more than 300 protesters trying to push its way towards the main gate of the embassy compound.
Several demonstrators were hurt, while the crowd threw stones and firecrackers at the embassy.
”Death to the United States” and ”Death to England” were among the slogans chanted, as some shouted ”we await the order of the Guide [supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] to attack”.
It was the sixth such demonstration against the British embassy in 11 days in protest at the actions of the US-led coalition in Iraq, in which Britain is a key component.
The demonstrators, mainly young Islamists, are particularly incensed by reports of the profanation of Shiite Muslim holy sites in Iraq by coalition forces.
One cleric who spoke said ”we are here to say to the English that those who are demonstrating here are Hezbollahi [of the party of God], and if we entered the embassy and cut off all your heads they would not be worth the head of one Muslim”.
Khamenei had declared Friday as a day of mourning for what he said has been the profanation by US forces of Shiite holy sites in Iraq and atrocities committed there.
Indignation has been growing in Iran, a country with an overwhelmingly Shiite population, over the revelations of abuse and torture by US prison guards of detainees in Iraq, the population of which is about 60% Shiite.
People are also deeply upset over the military operations in Najaf and Karbala, also a holy city, both of which have been visited by about three million Iranian pilgrims over the past eight months. — Sapa-AFP