Karroubi assails Iran's state-run media: "fanatics like the Talilban"

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Source: CNN

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- As Iran extended the deadline Tuesday to file complaints about the disputed presidential election, one candidate lashed out at the hardline government while another went the opposite direction and withdrew his accusations.


Opposition candidate Mehdi Karroubi, a reformist, has strongly criticized Iran's state-controlled media. Opposition candidate Mehdi Karroubi strongly criticized Iran's state-controlled media and supporters of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, likening them to the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

. . .

The "assaults, beatings and murder of innocent people" were committed by plain-clothed security forces, not by demonstrators as the Iranian media would like its audiences to believe, Karroubi said in an open letter addressed to Ezattollah Zarghami, which was posted on Karroubi's Web site.

"You know well that those who support Mr. Ahmadinejad's government today are promoters of fanatic and Taliban-like Islam," Karroubi said.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/23/iran.election/index.html

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Seems like part of an orchestrated effort to keep the opposition united and keep the pressure on Ahmadinejad.


Could signal increasing split among the clergy.