Iranian opposition Web sites reported Monday the arrest of several prominent reformists, including aides to opposition leaders and a former foreign minister, a day after clashes killed at least eight, the deadliest day of protests since the summer.
Iranian opposition Web sites reported Monday the arrest of several prominent reformists, including aides to opposition leaders and a former foreign minister, a day after clashes killed at least eight, the deadliest day of protests since the summer.

According to the Web site of former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi's "green movement," or RaheSabz, authorities early Monday arrested Ebrahim Yazdi, Iran's one-time foreign minister. He has led a tolerated reformist group in Iran. The site also reported the morning round-up of top Mousavi aides, including his chief of staff, a top advisor, his presidential campaign chief and the head of Mousavi's Web site.

Security forces also stormed a foundation run by reformist former President Mohammad Khatami and arrested two people, a foundation official told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fears of police reprisal.

The arrests ratchet up pressure on the opposition after the regime of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unleashed a heavy-handed crackdown on protesters Sunday. Opposition supporters said late Sunday they documented at least eight deaths in Tehran alone in the day's clashes. On Monday, Iranian state media confirmed eight deaths nation-wide, but said the fatalities weren't caused by Iranian security services.

Opposition sites reported Sunday that police opened fire at one point into a crowd of protesters, killing at least four. Hospitals reported dozens of injuries.

One of the protesters slain on Sunday was the nephew of Mousavi, Iran's top opposition leader, according to Mousavi's official Web site.

On Monday, two opposition Web sites, citing the brother of the deceased Seyed Ali Mousavi, reported the nephew's body was missing. Reza Mousavi, Ali Mousavi's brother, said the body had been taken from the hospital where it was brought Sunday, according to the Web site Parleman News.

(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.)

On Monday, Press TV, the state-run, English-language news outlet, said the eight officially confirmed deaths were under investigation and said dozens of security forces, including Tehran's police chief, were injured in the clashes. Press TV quoted an unnamed official in the report.

The arrests follow a stinging denunciation of Sunday's violence by another top opposition leader, Mahdi Karroubi, early Monday. Karroubi, along with Mousavi, ran unsuccessfully against Ahmadinejad in June elections, which opposition supporters allege was rigged. The government has said the vote was fair.

In a posting on RaheSabz, the cleric, who has lashed out at the regime in increasingly harsh language, said even the former, ousted government of the Shah respected the holy day of Ashura, a culmination of a 10-day Shiite commemoration. The violence Sunday broke Shiite Muslim strictures against violence on the day.

"What has really happened? They (the ruling system) spilled the blood of people on the day of Ashura," according to a translation of the statement by the AP.

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