Several hundred opposition supporters shouting "Death to Dictators" have gathered in a street in central Tehran. According to media reports, several thousand police used batons and teargas in an attempt to disperse them. There were also reports that police have fired shots into the crowd, wounding several people. Several protestors were arrested, but witnesses report most are refusing to move.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards and its allied Basij militia had earlier this week warned supporters of Iran's opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi not to use anniversary to revive protests that began after the disputed June presidential election that was won by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Meanwhile just one kilometer away, a much larger crowd of thousands of government supporters have been arriving at the US embassy complex. Many are chanting slogans including "Death to the US" and "Death to Israel."

Anniversary of embassy hostages

On November 4, 1979, Islamist students stormed the US embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian Revolution. They took 65 staff hostage. More than 50 US diplomats were kept hostage for over a year. Washington has severed all diplomatic relations with Iran since then.

Many of the Iranians who led the attack on the US embassy, inspired by the new Islamic Republic, today criticize the regime that they helped into power.

wl/Reuters/AFP/dpa
Editor: Trinity Hartman