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Uneasy Calm Follows Violence In Tehran

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Jun 21, 2009 11:15 pm US/Mountain

Uneasy Calm Follows Violence In Tehran

Arrests Of Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani's Kin Show Iran Clerics Split

Track The Protests: Flickr | YouTube | Twitter

CBS News Interactive: About Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 5: Iranian supporters of defeated reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi attach candles to a wall on June 18, 2009, in Tehran, Iran.
Getty Images
Click to enlarge 2 of 5: Iran state-run TV aired video of a motorcyclist being attacked by several men in Tehran on June 20, 2009, as clashes raged between protesters and security forces elsewhere in Iran's capital.
CBS
Click to enlarge 3 of 5: A supporter of Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi prepares to throw stones at riot police during a demonstration on June 20, 2009, in Tehran, Iran.
Getty Images
Click to enlarge 4 of 5: Iranian protesters run for cover during clashes with riot police in Tehran on June 20, 2009.
AFP/Getty Images
Click to enlarge 5 of 5: Iranian police sit on motorcycles as they face protesters during a demonstration in Tehran on June 20, 2009.
-/AFP/Getty Images

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The streets of Iran's capital were mostly quiet Sunday, but the crisis over the disputed presidential election is far from over.

Among the latest developments: Opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi called on his supporters to continue their protests and the government arrested and later released the daughter of former president Rafsanjani as well as four other relatives. The arrests appeared to be a warning to clerics who might be aligning themselves with the opposition.

A Newsweek reporter has been detained, CBS News reported.

Sunday's relative peace followed a day of bloodshed in the heart of Tehran, as CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports.

It was a calm enforced by an intimidating security presence on the streets. As people absorbed the shock of Saturday's violence, Iranian State TV announced that 13 people had been killed in clashes between security forces and protesters.

While the blogosphere hummed with new images of confrontation and casualties, one became instantly iconic -- Neda, said to be a 16-year-old girl shot dead in Tehran, surrounded by those trying in vain to save her.

The last cell phone video image of her bleeding face was quickly made into an electronic poster posted worldwide.

But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad didn't mention the violence when he showed up on television Sunday. His message to a group of clerics was that the election had proved the Iranian people's love for the regime.

As the frenzied Ahmadinejad election rallies clearly showed -- the President does have genuine and passionate core support.

But millions of Iranians dislike him just as passionately. That's what drove them into the opposition camp. From defeated candidate Mousavi Sunday there was a carefully worded statement:

"Protesting against lies and fraud is your right," said a notice on his Web site. "Today the country mourns for those killed. Remain calm."

As a sign of the colossal power struggle going on at the top of Iran's regime, a previously untouchable figure -- the daughter of Grand Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani was detained overnight.

Rafsanjani is the most powerful of the opposition Mousavi's backers.

While his daughter was released, scores of other human rights activists, bloggers, reporters and protestors remain in detention after a wave of arrests that began last week.