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Rival rallies turn violent in Tehran
Hard-line supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clashed Friday with protesters who defied a ban on opposition demonstrations to stage the first major street protests in two months, a show of force during an annual government-backed rally against Israel.
Pro-government demonstrators attempted to attack two opposition leaders, former president Mohammad Khatami and former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, at separate protest sites in Tehran, but both escaped unharmed, news agencies and opposition Web sites reported. Two other senior opposition figures, including influential Shiite Muslim cleric and former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, also appeared at the protests in a rare show of defiance against Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had warned the opposition not to disrupt Quds Day, the annual day of public support for Palestinians.