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(4 Nov 2009)
Thousands of Iranians, including hardliners and pro-government students, rallied on Wednesday in front of the former US embassy in Tehran to mark the 30th anniversary of the embassy takeover in 1979.
The annual gathering took place as Iranian security forces using batons and tear gas clashed nearby with anti-government marches.
Islamic militants stormed the embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, seizing its occupants, after the United States failed to send the ousted Iranian monarch back for trial.
Pro-US Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was toppled in the 1979 Islamic revolution which brought hard-line clerics to power.
Fifty-two Americans from the embassy were held hostage for 444 days.
Wednesday's demonstrators carried anti-US and anti-Israel flags and placards and shouted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel".
Protesters set fire to US and Israeli flags.
One demonstrator said: "We are here to call for peace and tranquillity for the world and this will happen after the destruction of America and Israel."
Each year, thousands of school children and others are bussed to the gates of the former embassy - often called the "Den of Spies" by Iranian officials - and wave anti-American placards as speakers denounce Washington and Israel.
Among honoured guests are some of those who stormed the embassy 30 years ago.
On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama noted the anniversary of the takeover, and insisted he wants the US and Iran to move beyond the "path of sustained suspicion, mistrust and confrontation" that followed the subsequent hostage crisis.
Meanwhile, witnesses told The Associated Press that mainly paramilitary units from the Revolutionary Guard swept through an opposition march in central Tehran on Wednesday, clubbing some protesters and kicking and slapping others.
There was no immediate reports on injuries or arrests in the clashes in Haf-e-Tir Square - about a half-mile (one kilometre) from the former US Embassy.

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