TIMES ONLINE: Iran’s most outspoken opposition leader has had a narrow escape after his car was hit by bullets as he fled from a mob of government supporters.
Mehdi Karroubi’s armoured car was hit at least twice as it pulled away from the angry crowd, breaking the front and back windows. Mr Karroubi was unhurt.
The shooting was an ominous development in the seven months of internal strife that have engulfed Iran since the hotly disputed presidential election in June that handed victory to President Ahmadinejad.
Mr Karroubi, 72, has been attacked with bricks and teargas before but never with bullets, and in recent days the regime has sharply increased its efforts to crush a resurgent opposition. It has fired on demonstrators and staged rallies that have demanded the execution of Mr Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, the other leader of the so-called Green Movement. >>> Martin Fletcher | Friday, January 08, 2010
