Revolutionary Guards commander dismisses arrest claims

Earlier this week there were reports that General Fazli had been arrested and removed from his position for refusing to use force against anti-Ahmadinejad protestors, at the behest of Khamenei.

However according to Iran's state-supported Press TV General Fazli denied such reports and confirmed that he would always follow the orders of Ayatollah Khamenei.

He said, "Whenever the Islamic nation achieves a victory, the global arrogance will attempt to spoil the epic."

"Eight Basij members have been killed and about 300 of them have been wounded to protect the people of Tehran in the country's latest unrest."

However one Guardian correspondent said that the alleged deaths of Basij members sounded like "blatant propaganda".

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(Editor's note: Please be aware that due to intense media restrictions imposed by the Iranian government, it is not possble to independently verify these reports.)