Millions of Iranians held rallies on Sunday across the country to commemorate the Shiite Muslim ritual of Ashura, state television reported.
Live footage showed large crowds of people gathered in every major Iranian cities to
commemorate Ashura, which marks the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Mohammed, who was killed and buried in Karbala in 680 AD.
The Ashura ritual is widely performed in Iran and many other countries with large populations of Shiite Muslims, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Lebanon.
During the annual Ashura commemorations, mourners, generally dressed in black, took to
the streets or gathered in mosques to grieve over the death of Hussein.
In the Iranian capital of Tehran, tens of thousands of people held rallies and processions in
different parts of the city to observe the Ashura commemorations. Free food was also distributed in some mosques or roadside stands as part of the ritual.
Meanwhile, sporadic clashes were seen in some parts of downtown Tehran between police and opposition protestors, who voiced their support for defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, opposition websites said.
The clashes could not be independently verified as foreign media have been banned from
covering any opposition protests in Iran.