TEHRAN, June 14 (UPI) -- A part of central Tehran, Iran, turned into a combat zone overnight with battles between riot police and those denouncing Iran's Islamic government.
What started as a small student march against the issue of university privatization on Tuesday has snowballed into violent nightly protests by demonstrators demanding more social, economic and political freedom.
The protests on Friday, the largest and most violent to date, erupted on the campus of Shaheed Beheshti University in northern Tehran and clogged the two major highways leading to the dormitories of Tehran University.
"This is civil disobedience. We are standing up against them. We are resisting and protesting against the regime," a 45-year-old man told The New York Times.
Riot police and other troops were deployed around Tehran University to prevent crowds from gathering.
The city's police chief told students his men were there to prevent "infiltrators" from reaching the campus, reported Iran's Student News Agency.
