New amateur videos purportedly showing clashes between police and protesters in the wake of Iran's hotly disputed presidential election surfaced Tuesday along with reports that a large-scale general strike was in the works.
Video posted on YouTube appears to show riot police flooding the streets of Tehran in an attempt to disrupt large-scale protests. In one video, groups of police can be seen retreating from protesters throwing objects as a yellow gas is released. Another video shows crowds advancing through streets, stopping traffic.
Just before the clashes Monday, an Iranian woman who lives in Tehran said there was a heavy police and security presence in another square in central Tehran. She asked not to be identified because she was worried about government reprisals.
"There is a massive, massive, massive police presence," she told The Associated Press in Cairo by telephone. "Their presence was really intimidating."
In another amateur video that was apparently shot at night, shouts of "God is Great" and "Death to the Dictator," are reportedly heard in the darkness.
Iran says at least 17 protesters have been killed in a week of unrest so far after the electoral council declared hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad winner of the June 12 election. His main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, charged the election was a fraud and insists he is the true winner. His followers have been staging near-daily rallies, at least one of them drawing a massive crowd of hundreds of thousands.
Severe restrictions on reporters have made it almost impossible to independently verify any reports on demonstrations, clashes and casualties. Iran has ordered reporters for foreign news agencies to stay in their offices, barring them from any reporting on the streets.
Freelance journalist Kayvon Biouki told FOX News' Shepard Smith on Monday that his sources said a general strike of private businesses was planned across the country on Tuesday. He said he did not know if any government entities were planning on participating.
"The genie is out of the bottle," Biouki said.
"I don't think that there is a stop to all of this," Biouki said.
He said he anticipated protests continuing until conservative forces give in, either by holding new elections or otherwise surrendering.
Click for amateur video believed to be from the protests.
"By the look of things, it doesn't seem that the conservatives are going to back down. And at the same time it doesn't seem that people, Mousavi supporters, and all those who oppose the Iranian system in one way or another, those aren't going to back down from this either," he said.
"In a way, it's a revolution in progress."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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