Thousands of Islamic militiamen loyal to Iran's rulers have staged exercises for deployment against protesters in the event of any anti-regime demonstrations, a reformist daily reported on Saturday. Around 3,000 members of the Basij militia on Friday held mock "street battles using the experience of events" that followed Iran's contested 2009 presidential election, Arman newspaper said, quoting a Revolutionary Guards commander.
Some of them were "injured" during the exercises, which pitted militiamen "playing the role of seditionists (reformist opposition protesters)" against special units. The commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran, Brigadier General Hossein Hamedani, told the units taking part in the exercises that the Islamic republic remained "vulnerable" to domestic "sedition." The term "sedition" is used by the regime to refer to an opposition movement, led by Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, that was shaped after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009.
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