Word: basij
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Undercover Basij militiamen - many with slicked-back hair, wearing dress shirts and holding walkie-talkies - patrolled the main city arteries, in proportionally larger numbers than past protests. Although officially under the supervision of the Revolutionary Guards, they have in the past month become a fearsome force in quashing dissent. The reported killings of dozens of protesters last month has sufficiently intimidated many would-be protesters, as has Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's continued threats of a "brutal" response to any public demonstrations. On July 20, he declared that "anybody who drives the society toward insecurity and disorder is a hated...
Street demonstrations erupted in Iran once again on July 21 as thousands of people gathered in small pockets around central Tehran on the anniversary of an uprising in 1952 in which government security forces refused to fire on the crowds. This time, the Basij militia and members of the élite Revolutionary Guards were less kind, chasing protesters with batons, firing tear gas to disperse the crowds and, according to reports, arresting dozens in the process. One source said that the underground Haft e-Tir subway station was teargassed. Two Revolutionary Guards were seen with bandaged noses around Haft...
...Mohammed Khatami called for a national referendum on the legitimacy of the current regime, demonstrators came out - albeit in smaller numbers - first at Haft e-Tir shortly before 5 p.m., and then spreading westward on Kharim Khan Street. Because of the overwhelming security presence - hundreds of Guards and undercover Basij were waiting at Haft e-Tir and other major squares - protesters adopted a relatively new strategy, eschewing their symbolic green to blend in with the after-work crowd, then suddenly chanting slogans like "Death to the dictators" before scattering and re-emerging down the street...
...once the four-year construction project is completed. China would also overhaul Iran's aging Abadan refinery in the south so that its production could increase by 29%, according to Iranian oil officials, who provided no deadline for that project. (See pictures of the plainclothes terror of the Basij militia...
...Sepah in Farsi, use the main building - which resembles a high school gym in shape and size - to train its members. For the past month, they have participated in the government's brutal response to mass demonstrations by beating protesters in the streets with truncheons and overseeing the notorious Basij militia, a paramilitary group that has been accused of killing dozens of civilians. (Read about the violence in the streets of Iran...