The less hard-core members may be a wild card in upcomin. Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, June 19, 2009   One of the more dramatic video clips from Iran this week showed a man in an upper-floor window firing onto demonstrators outside a building near Tehran's Azadi Square, killing at least one and wounding others. The building was a base for the Basij, a semiofficial force of volunteers on whom the government has relied for years to enforce a variety of laws and religious codes. Protesters have accused them of committing much of this week's violence, saying they have raided university dorms, beaten women and smashed their way into private homes. Many said they fear the Basij will be used to carry out even worse violence as the protests continue.

By Gary Thomas, VOA, Washington, The controversial outcome of Iran's presidential election has prompted a potentially explosive political crisis. Post-election fights have erupted in the streets and in the corridors of power in Tehran that are the continuation of a bitter political campaign.The government declared the incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the winner in a landslide over his closest challenger, reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi. That sparked charges of a rigged election and violent street protests by angry Mousavi supporters.

By Jim Muir, former BBC Tehran correspondent, On the face of it, the disturbances currently shaking Tehran in the wake of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial re-election look very similar to the street clashes that erupted there in July 1999 and June 2003. As happened then, thousands of angry and disillusioned people, their hopes for change frustrated, have taken to the streets, clashing with security forces and hardline vigilantes who roam the city on motorcycles. Buses and banks have been burnt, and student dormitories raided by police or irregulars, as happened on those earlier occasions.