*Sources: Int'l Media / Guardian.co.uk
(NSI News Source Info) TEHRAN, Iran - June 16, 2009: Iranian hardliners' attempts to resist the country's biggest uprising for decades appeared to be crumbling today as popular pressure forced officials to announce a recount of disputed votes from Friday's presidential elections.
Huge rallies in Tehran yesterday saw tens of thousands of people defy a ban and take to the streets to protest at the declaration that the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had won Friday's poll over the more moderate Mir Hossein Mousavi. 
An Iranian university exchange student protests election results outside Iran's embassy to Italy in Rome June 15, 2009.
The Iranian regime today seemed to be reversing its position – which had seen Ahmadinejad declared the winner by a landslide – as the embattled president arrived in Russia for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
The country's powerful guardian council said it was ready to hold a recount in areas disputed by opposition candidates. No details of the scope of the recount and who would carry it out were available.
The council was reported to have said that a recount could lead to changes in the votes recorded for the candidates, but some analysts said it would not necessarily see a change in the final result.
Yesterday's rallies, said to be the biggest since the Iranian revolution in 1979, were reported to have resulted in seven deaths. 
Map locates the Azadi Square in Tehran, Iran, where at least seven people were killed in clashes.
Further mass demonstrations were expected to take place as the challenge to the Iranian regime intensified.
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a leading Iranian reformist and former vice-president who had backed the pro-reform candidate Mehdi Karoubi, was arrested early yesterday, his office said.
Another prominent reformer and Mousavi ally, Saeed Hajjarian, was reported to have been arrested yesterday .
This morning, state radio said the deaths of seven people happened when shooting erupted after a group at the protest "tried to attack a military location" in western Tehran.
The first fatality came as shots were fired at supporters of Mousavi who had marched in their thousands through the city centre to Azadi (Freedom) Square, demanding that the election result be annulled.
Basij militiamen linked to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard were said to have been responsible for the shooting.
Precise figures for the scale of the demonstration were not available, but some estimates suggested that more than 500,000 people were involved in the protest against the election "theft".
"Mousavi, we support you! We will die but regain our votes," supporters, many wearing the green of the moderate's election campaign, shouted. Many carried signs that read: "Where is my vote?"
Several vehicles were set alight in Tehran's streets, and there were reports that protesters had taken to city rooftops at nightfall yesterday, shouting "death to the dictator".
The presence of huge crowds on the streets, and reports of other fatalities, appeared to dash earlier predictions that the unrest of the past three days would fade away.
There was a further twist yesterday when it was announced that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had ordered the guardian council to investigate claims of election fraud.
Diplomatic sources said this was not a major shift, suggesting Khamenei had merely warned Mousavi that he should proceed with his fraud complaints carefully, using only "legal" means available to him.
Khamenei endorsed the election result on Saturday, dashing opposition hopes that he might be persuaded to order a recount or even annul the outcome.
The council, which consists of 12 senior clerics, said yesterday it would rule within 10 days on two official complaints it had received from Mousavi and another candidate, Mohsen Rezaie.
The council vets candidates and must formally approve results for the outcome to stand.
The interior ministry, which announced the election result on Saturday, and the president, have rejected charges of fraud.
Ahmadinejad compared protesters to football fans angry that their team had lost.
However, questions were asked about how 40m Iranian votes had been counted and the results announced so soon after the polls closed.
There was no sign of the anger diminishing. "Many of my friends are in prison," Saman Imani, a student who was beaten by police, said. 
Iranian university exchange students protest election results outside Iran's embassy to Italy in Rome June 15, 2009.
"Iran is becoming a dictatorship. Ahmadinejad is denying the Holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was."
Ebrahim Yazdi, the leader of the banned opposition Freedom Movement and a veteran of the revolution, warned that Ahmadinejad's attacks on his opponents had opened a "Pandora's box" which had led to a deep crisis within the regime.
"The result of such a crisis now is that the rift among the ... personalities of the revolution is getting deeper," he said.
"It is also between people and their government ... a rift between state and the nation. It is the biggest crisis since the revolution."
Further reports told of people in Isfahan, Ahwaz, Zahedan, Yazd and Mashhad shouting "Allahu Akbar [God is great]" in support of the Tehran demonstrations.
Governments around the world were watching the situation closely. "The implications are not yet clear," David Miliband, the foreign secretary, said.
The US president, Barack Obama, said he was "deeply troubled" by the post-election violence. "It is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran's leaders will be," he said.
"We respect Iranian sovereignty and want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran."
An Iranian university exchange student protests election results outside Iran's embassy to Italy in Rome June 15, 2009.
The Iranian regime today seemed to be reversing its position – which had seen Ahmadinejad declared the winner by a landslide – as the embattled president arrived in Russia for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
The country's powerful guardian council said it was ready to hold a recount in areas disputed by opposition candidates. No details of the scope of the recount and who would carry it out were available.
The council was reported to have said that a recount could lead to changes in the votes recorded for the candidates, but some analysts said it would not necessarily see a change in the final result.
Yesterday's rallies, said to be the biggest since the Iranian revolution in 1979, were reported to have resulted in seven deaths. Map locates the Azadi Square in Tehran, Iran, where at least seven people were killed in clashes.
Further mass demonstrations were expected to take place as the challenge to the Iranian regime intensified.
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a leading Iranian reformist and former vice-president who had backed the pro-reform candidate Mehdi Karoubi, was arrested early yesterday, his office said.
Another prominent reformer and Mousavi ally, Saeed Hajjarian, was reported to have been arrested yesterday .
This morning, state radio said the deaths of seven people happened when shooting erupted after a group at the protest "tried to attack a military location" in western Tehran.
The first fatality came as shots were fired at supporters of Mousavi who had marched in their thousands through the city centre to Azadi (Freedom) Square, demanding that the election result be annulled.
Basij militiamen linked to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard were said to have been responsible for the shooting.
Precise figures for the scale of the demonstration were not available, but some estimates suggested that more than 500,000 people were involved in the protest against the election "theft".
"Mousavi, we support you! We will die but regain our votes," supporters, many wearing the green of the moderate's election campaign, shouted. Many carried signs that read: "Where is my vote?"
Several vehicles were set alight in Tehran's streets, and there were reports that protesters had taken to city rooftops at nightfall yesterday, shouting "death to the dictator".
The presence of huge crowds on the streets, and reports of other fatalities, appeared to dash earlier predictions that the unrest of the past three days would fade away.
There was a further twist yesterday when it was announced that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had ordered the guardian council to investigate claims of election fraud.
Diplomatic sources said this was not a major shift, suggesting Khamenei had merely warned Mousavi that he should proceed with his fraud complaints carefully, using only "legal" means available to him.
Khamenei endorsed the election result on Saturday, dashing opposition hopes that he might be persuaded to order a recount or even annul the outcome.
The council, which consists of 12 senior clerics, said yesterday it would rule within 10 days on two official complaints it had received from Mousavi and another candidate, Mohsen Rezaie.
The council vets candidates and must formally approve results for the outcome to stand.
The interior ministry, which announced the election result on Saturday, and the president, have rejected charges of fraud.
Ahmadinejad compared protesters to football fans angry that their team had lost.
However, questions were asked about how 40m Iranian votes had been counted and the results announced so soon after the polls closed.
There was no sign of the anger diminishing. "Many of my friends are in prison," Saman Imani, a student who was beaten by police, said. Iranian university exchange students protest election results outside Iran's embassy to Italy in Rome June 15, 2009.
"Iran is becoming a dictatorship. Ahmadinejad is denying the Holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was."
Ebrahim Yazdi, the leader of the banned opposition Freedom Movement and a veteran of the revolution, warned that Ahmadinejad's attacks on his opponents had opened a "Pandora's box" which had led to a deep crisis within the regime.
"The result of such a crisis now is that the rift among the ... personalities of the revolution is getting deeper," he said.
"It is also between people and their government ... a rift between state and the nation. It is the biggest crisis since the revolution."
Further reports told of people in Isfahan, Ahwaz, Zahedan, Yazd and Mashhad shouting "Allahu Akbar [God is great]" in support of the Tehran demonstrations.
Governments around the world were watching the situation closely. "The implications are not yet clear," David Miliband, the foreign secretary, said.
The US president, Barack Obama, said he was "deeply troubled" by the post-election violence. "It is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran's leaders will be," he said.
"We respect Iranian sovereignty and want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran."
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