Fresh violence in Iran

The disturbances broke out last weekend

By Jim Muir in Tehran

There are reports of more disturbances in the western Iranian city of Khorramabad, following a series of violent confrontations in recent days between right-wing militants and student supporters of the reform movement.

The trouble began last week after two prominent liberals were prevented from addressing a student gathering in the city.

A member of Iran's largest student organisation shows his wounds

A policeman was killed and a number of students injured in subsequent clashes.

The disturbances have caused widespread national concern and several high-level investigations are being carried out.

Investigations

The latest disturbances do not appear to have been on a very wide scale but are significant in indicating that tension persists more than a week after the trouble in Khorramabad first broke out.

Tehran newspaper reports said that a group of rioters attacked bank premises in one part of the city during the night, throwing stones and smashing windows.

Students demonstrate after the liberal gathering was disrupted

They also threw Molotov cocktails at a petrol station but it did not catch fire.

The continuing disturbances occurred as several teams of high-level investigators were converging on Khorramabad.

Their task is to find out who was responsible for the violence, including the killing of a police officer who died of gunshot wounds on Sunday night.

One team has been sent by the judiciary, another by the Interior Ministry and a third from the Supreme National Security Council, which is headed by the reformist President, Mohammad Khatami.

Condemnation

His supporters are convinced that the violence at Khorramabad was staged by hardline, right-wing extremists bent on fomenting chaos in order to derail the reform process.

Mr Khatami's cabinet condemned what it called "the calculated incidents" aimed at weakening the authority of the government.

It demanded that the culprits be brought swiftly to justice.

The president's younger brother, Mohammad Reza Khatami - who heads the reformist faction which now predominates in parliament - said the violence was a sign of success for the reformist movement.

He said it showed that its roots had spread so far that its opponents had become angry and irrational.

Right-wing figures have blamed the trouble on agitators and anti-regime elements on the liberal side of the spectrum.