'Thugs' Blamed For Tehran University Violence

(RFE/RL) May 24, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Fresh student protests erupted today at two universities in the Iranian capital following overnight clashes with police forces that left several people wounded, Radio Farda reports.

The protests are taking place at Tehran University and at Amir Kabir University, one of Iran's most prestigious technical colleges.

AFP quotes unidentified sources as saying the students are protesting the changing of university rectors and the forced retirement of some professors.

Iran's IRNA state news agency quotes Tehran's police chief, General Morteza Talaie, as saying the overnight clashes in front of the Tehran University dormitories left some 40 law-enforcement officers lightly injured. Talaie also blamed "thugs from outside the university" for attacking the police with stones.

Tehran University was the scene of violent clashes in 1999, when students protested over the closure of a reformist newspaper.

(with material from AFP)