Iran: Montazeri's funeral becomes protest

QOM, Iran, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Iranian security forces and Basij militia faced off with anti-government protesters in Qom Monday at the funeral of a top Iranian cleric-turned critic.

Mourners, some carrying green opposition banners and shouting "Death to the dictator," filled the streets of the Iranian holy city, 60 miles south of Tehran, using the funeral of a founding father of the Islamic Revolution to call for political reform, witnesses said.

The crowds were so massive, riot police initially left mourners alone, reports on Iranian opposition Web sites indicated. However, the BBC's Iran correspondent said there were reports of clashes and rock throwing later and the reformist Web site Kaleme said "plainclothes men" on motorcycles broke the rear window of the car carrying opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi back to Tehran after the funeral.

The opposition Web site Peykerian said more protests are planned Sunday on the Shiite religious holiday of Ashura.

Most foreign journalists are barred from visiting Qom.

Dissident Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri died in his sleep Saturday night of natural causes at the age of 87. He was a prominent figure in Iran's Islamic Revolution 30 years ago and a prominent critic of June's disputed presidential election that gave hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term as president.

Montazeri was once considered a candidate to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini before he broke with hard-liners in the 1980s.

His death is "a terrible blow for the (reformist) green movement and everybody who has been active these past few months," Mehrdad Khonsari, a senior research consultant at the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies in London, told CNN.