TEHRAN, Iran — A background struggle among Iran’s ruling clerics flared Sunday when the government said it had arrested the daughter and other relatives of an ayatollah who is one of the country’s most powerful men.
State media said the daughter and four other relatives of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani were later released, but their arrests appeared to be a clear warning from the hardline establishment to a cleric who may be aligning himself with the opposition.
Tehran’s streets fell mostly quiet for the first time since a bitterly disputed June 12 presidential election, but cries of “God is great!” echoed again from rooftops after dark, a sign of anger at a government crackdown that peaked with at least 10 protesters’ deaths Saturday.
The killings drove the official death toll to at least 17 after a week of massive street demonstrations by protesters who say hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole his re-election win.
Police and the feared Basij militia swarmed the streets of Tehran to prevent more protests, and the government intensified a crackdown on independent media — expelling a BBC correspondent, suspending the Dubai-based network Al-Arabiya and detaining at least two local journalists for U.S. magazines.
Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi warned supporters of danger ahead, and said he would stand by the protesters “at all times.”
In the clearest sign yet of a splintering among the ayatollahs, state media announced the arrests of Rafsanjani’s relatives including his daughter Faezeh, a 46-year-old reformist politician vilified by hardliners for her open support of Mousavi.
State media said Rafsanjani’s relatives had been held for their own protection.
Rafsanjani heads the cleric-run Assembly of Experts, which can remove the supreme leader, the country’s most powerful figure. He also chairs the Expediency Council, a body that arbitrates disputes between parliament and the unelected Guardian Council.
Rafsanjani and his family have been accused of corruption by Ahmadinejad. And the 75-year-old ayatollah was conspicuously absent Friday from an address by the country’s supreme leader calling for national unity and siding with the president.
That fueled speculation that Rafsanjani, who has made no public comment since the election, may be working behind the scenes and favoring Mousavi.
Protesters have openly defied Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s orders to leave the streets and witnesses said some shouted “Death to Khamenei!” at Saturday’s demonstrations — a once unthinkable challenge.
At least some lower-ranking clergy also appeared to have broken with the supreme leader. Photos posted by a moderate conservative news Web site showed what appeared to be mullahs in brown robes and white turbans protesting alongside a crowd of young men.
The images and others flooding out from Iran in recent days could not immediately be independently verified due to government restrictions on foreign media, which were banned from reporting on Tehran’s streets.
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