In Tehran, Thousands Rally to Back Government

Tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators took to the streets of Tehran on Wednesday shouting support for their leaders, three days after government security forces clashed with opposition members who staged one of their largest protests in months.

The government had called on its supporters to stage the rally on Wednesday to protest what it said had been an “insult to religious sanctities” on Sunday. A witness said many demonstrators on Wednesday were taken to protest sites by dozens of buses and were given free chocolate milk, and The Associated Press said the government had given all civil servants the day off to attend the rallies.

The chants of the crowds on Sunday and Wednesday spoke to the depth of the schism in Iranian society since the presidential election in June that the opposition claims the government stole from reformist candidates. On Sunday, protesters shouted, “Death to Khamenei,” referring to the country’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. On Wednesday, protesters countered with cries of “Death to Moussavi,” referring to Mir Hussein Moussavi, the man the opposition believes was the rightful winner of the election.

Sunday’s protests seemed to deepen the country’s divisions, in part because police officers fired into crowds of protesters, shocking many Iranians by breaking a taboo against violence on Shiite Islam’s holiest day. On Wednesday, the vitriol continued, with protesters chanting, “No reconciliation, no surrender, we die for our leader,” and “Assassination, riots and attacks are plots by the United States,” according to the ISNA news agency.

And a speaker at the demonstrations, Ayatollah Ahmad Alam Olhoda, the Friday Prayer leader of the city of Mashhad, called opposition leaders “Mohareb,” meaning enemies of God, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported. People convicted of being an enemy of God can be punished by death.

But Ayatollah Alam Olhoda appeared to leave some room for reconciliation, urging opposition leaders to “ask for forgiveness.”

ISNA ran a statement from Ayatollah Khamenei that seemed to suggest an acknowledgment that the government had lost some supporters during months of political upheaval, although he put a positive spin on it. “Realities in society show that despite the loss of support there is twice more fresh support,” he was quoted as saying. He also blamed “Zionist media” for Sunday’s protest.

Also on Wednesday, the IRNA news agency reported that Mr. Moussavi and another opposition leader, Mehdi Karroubi, had “escaped” from Tehran to Mazandaran Province in northern Iran. But Mr. Karroubi’s son, Hussein Karroubi, denied the report in a telephone interview and said both his father and Mr. Moussavi were at their homes in Tehran. “None of them have plans to go anywhere,” he said, “and no one has come after them, either.”

He confirmed reports that Mr. Moussavi’s nephew, Ali Moussavi, whom the opposition said was assassinated Sunday, was buried Wednesday morning at Tehran’s Behesht-eh Zahra cemetery. He said the funeral was held amid heavy security and in the presence of 40 family members, including the opposition leader.

The body of the younger Mr. Moussavi had earlier been taken away by the authorities in what was widely believed to be an effort to prevent a large funeral that could grow into another antigovernment protest.

Since the protest on Sunday, the government says it has arrested about 1,400 people. Although the government says just eight people died in the violence, the opposition says the toll was probably significantly higher.