Hundreds of thousands at pro-government rallies in Iran

Hundreds of thousands of government supporters rallied across Iran on Wednesday, swearing allegiance to the clerical establishment and accusing opposition leaders of causing unrest in the Islamic state. Iran's police chief warned supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi to expect harsh treatment if they joined illegal anti-government rallies, three days after eight protesters were killed in demonstrations. Hundreds of thousands took part in the government-organized demonstrations, which state television broadcast live, chanting slogans against the opposition leaders -- Mousavi and moderate defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karoubi. "You should repent ... otherwise the system will confront you as a 'mohareb' (enemy of God)," cleric Ahmad Alamolhoda told a Tehran rally, directing his remarks at reformist leaders, state TV reported. Under Iran's sharia (Islamic law) the sentence for a mohareb is death. Iran's state news agency IRNA said that two leaders of "sedition" had fled to a northern Iranian province.