TEHRAN — Pressing their claim to victory, pro-government supporters staged a mass rally in Tehran on Tuesday, responding to calls from state media to come out in support of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and against protesters they described as "looters and arsonists."
But Ahmadinejad's opponents defied and outwitted authorities to organize another mass rally of their own. Filing silently through the city's main boulevard, they held flowers and green banners, ribbons and posters of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the former prime minister who lost his bid for the presidency Friday in a vote marred by allegations of fraud.
The dueling rallies illustrated efforts by both sides to seek the stamp of legitimacy by drawing huge numbers of people onto the streets. They also highlighted the contrast between Mousavi supporters' technical savvy and the old guard's blunt instruments of state.
The disputed presidential election results, which Mousavi and his supporters say were forged, have sparked four days of civil unrest, the most momentous since the student uprisings of 1999.
The country's Guardian Council, a 12-man committee that serves to uphold the constitution, announced Tuesday that it had begun a 10-day investigation into allegations of voting irregularities, but also praised the election process and said the reevaluation would be limited to specific areas where alleged infractions took place.
"From the point of view of violations, it was an election that had the least amount of violations reported," said Abbas-Ali Kadkhodai, a spokesman for the council, according to state television.
The country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, beseeched Iranians to draw back from the divisions created over the election. At least 12 people have been killed in clashes between pro-government militias and protesters in the capital of 12 million. One was shot and wounded after an altercation at the end of Tuesday's largely peaceful north Tehran rally, according to a witness. A source inside the capital's Evin Prison said upward of 1,500 people, mostly young men, have been arrested during the clashes and roughed up in prison before being let go with warnings.
Among dissidents reported arrested Tuesday were Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a prominent reformist cleric and blogger, and Abdolfattah Soltani, a human rights lawyer.
