Basiji Militia

On the fashionable streets of the city's north, young men and women in bluejeans and designer clothes sometimes smirk at Morteza Amiri, with his thick black beard and black shirt. They stare, sometimes mocking him with religious chants. But Amiri, a pious 22-year-old from the south of Tehran, just smiles. He knows who he is and where he comes from. He rests easy in the comfort that he is not alone.

Iran's supreme leader Saturday told shadowy pro-government militias not to interfere in the nation's postelection unrest even as the head of the notorious Basiji militia warned that his forces would "jump into the fray" if authorities didn't act strongly against the opposition movement. In his first public comments since protests last month that coincided with a major religious holiday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made a rare attempt to ease tensions. Two days after gunmen with suspected ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard allegedly opened fire on the car of opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi, Khamenei urged all to abide by the law. "Relevant bodies should fully respect the law in dealing with the riots and the ongoing events," he told clerics and seminary students bused to Tehran from the shrine city of Qom for an annual political commemoration.

Iran's supreme leader Saturday told shadowy pro-government militias not to interfere in the nation's postelection unrest even as the head of the notorious Basiji militia warned that his forces would "jump into the fray" if authorities didn't act strongly against the opposition movement. In his first public comments since protests last month that coincided with a major religious holiday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made a rare attempt to ease tensions. Two days after gunmen with suspected ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard allegedly opened fire on the car of opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi, Khamenei urged all to abide by the law. "Relevant bodies should fully respect the law in dealing with the riots and the ongoing events," he told clerics and seminary students bused to Tehran from the shrine city of Qom for an annual political commemoration.

One night he came home covered with blood. "What happened?" she asked, looking up from her textbook, aghast at the red splashes on his hands, shirt and face. "Nothing," he said, before ducking into the bathroom. "I was helping some of the wounded." She believed him. She had to. He was her husband, the man she loved. Besides, she knew the rules of the Basiji, the hard-line Iranian militia he belonged to: An order was an order, and if that meant cracking the heads of some demonstrators during the unrest this summer, so be it. She knew, because she belonged to the Basiji elite herself.

One night he came home covered with blood. "What happened?" she asked, looking up from her textbook, aghast at the red splashes on his hands, shirt and face. "Nothing," he said, before ducking into the bathroom. "I was helping some of the wounded." She believed him. She had to. He was her husband, the man she loved. Besides, she knew the rules of the Basiji, the hard-line Iranian militia he belonged to: An order was an order, and if that meant cracking the heads of some demonstrators during the unrest this summer, so be it. She knew, because she belonged to the Basiji elite herself.

Iran's supreme leader has replaced the head of the feared militia at the center of the postelection crackdown with a senior military officer under U.N. sanctions for links to the country's ballistic missile program, state media reported. The Basiji militia, whose members operate in plain clothes and often wield crude weapons, was blamed for much of the violence against crowds protesting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed June 12 reelection. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei replaced commander Hossein Taeb on Sunday, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Two separate explosions killed a nuclear scientist and injured another in the Iranian capital Monday morning, official news outlets reported. Both scholars' wives and a driver were also injured in the attacks, according to the news agencies. The slain scientist, Majid Shahriari, was a member of the nuclear engineering team at the Shahid Behesti university in Tehran, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks and no arrests have been made, Iranian officials said.

Iranian authorities released a French researcher from Tehran's Evin Prison into the custody of diplomats Sunday, even as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the West for the mass protests that followed his disputed reelection in June. The Iranian leader also named a hard-line loyalist with strong ties to the Revolutionary Guard and the pro-government Basiji militia to oversee the country's vast intelligence infrastructure. The release of Clotilde Reiss, 24, eases strains between the Islamic Republic and Europe.

Iran's embattled leader toned down his rhetoric, softened his voice and attempted to directly woo the people in a live prime-time television interview Thursday ahead of what most analysts predict will be a fierce fight with parliament over his proposed Cabinet. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said 11 of his 21 nominees have doctoral degrees, and said it was an advantage that many of them appear to be staunch loyalists of his. "Some people suggested that such and such person is capable but he does not agree with you," he said.

Iran's judiciary acquitted a moderate former government official of espionage charges Tuesday, prompting vehement criticism by supporters of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and escalating the infighting within Iran's leadership. Authorities had charged Hossein Mousavian, Iran's former nuclear negotiator and a confidant of pragmatist cleric Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, with divulging state secrets to other countries this year.

On the fashionable streets of the city's north, young men and women in bluejeans and designer clothes sometimes smirk at Morteza Amiri, with his thick black beard and black shirt. They stare, sometimes mocking him with religious chants. But Amiri, a pious 22-year-old from the south of Tehran, just smiles. He knows who he is and where he comes from. He rests easy in the comfort that he is not alone.

Thousands of Iranian government supporters gathered for a Friday prayer sermon rally meant to counter the resurgent opposition movement that staged a boisterous and scattered day of protests this week. But Iranian authorities Friday appeared to have backed off calls to execute Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the opposition leaders who called for the protests held Monday. The two reformist politicians, now under virtual house arrest, have called on supporters to head to the streets again Sunday.

Scores of young men gathered around the Tehran home-office of Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, shouted slogans against her and vandalized her home in the latest episode by hard-line political groups close to the government to intimidate the human rights lawyer.