'Neda' death video steps up pressure on Iran over protests

A video of a blood-drenched young woman, purportedly killed in the Tehran protests, has become an Internet symbol of the demonstrations and heightened pressure on Iran in its battle with foreign media.

The video, showing blood pouring from the nose and mouth of the young woman, was put online Saturday and has since been viewed hundreds of thousands of times around the world. So far, she has only been identified on the Internet as Neda.

International media have taken pictures from the film which has inspired an avalanche of blog and twitter comment, mainly against Iran's hardline government.

After a call spread by Internet to rally at Haft-e Tir square in Tehran to pay tribute to Neda, police on Monday broke up a gathering of about 1,000 people there.

The film reportedly shows Neda moments after she is hit in the chest by a shot while watching the protests on Saturday with her father on a Tehran street.

Bystanders desperately tend to the woman who wears jeans, a black jacket and an Islamic headscarf. Her eyes roll back as blood spreads across her face. People around her scream and a white haired man desperately tells her: "Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid!"

There have been mass protests in Tehran against the disputed president election victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The people who originally posted the video on Youtube and Facebook said Neda was shot by a pro-government militia member.

That information, like the fate and the identity of the young woman in the video, cannot be independently verified however.

Iranian state TV has said that 10 people were killed and more than 100 injured during Tehran demonstrations on Saturday, the eighth day of the political crisis.

Photos of Neda have been used at demonstrations around the world: from Istanbul to Los Angeles.

A number of Twitter users have been tinting their profile pictures green in solidarity with Iranians in recent days.

A Facebook page entitled "Angel of Iran" has been set up to honour her, bloggers and Twitter messages have called her: "Neda: Angel of Freedom".

"Today people are in mourning for Neda. The whole world has seen Neda, a young woman full of life and hope. Her voice has been reduced to silence but now we will be her voice," wrote Cinderella777.

Among those using the green tinted Twitter messages is singer Wyclef Jean, formerly of The Fugees, who sent a message of support to Iranians on his Twitter feed on Monday: "Support not interfere that's what I'm saying!"

Craig Newmark, founder of the online classified ad service Craigslist, and Joe Trippi, campaign manager for 2004 Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean, are among other notable US Twitter users sporting green profile pictures.

Foreign media have been banned from covering demonstrations and other public events and rely on witness accounts for their reports. Iran has accused Western media of unfair interference and of seeking to manipulate the protests.

On Monday, Iran said broadcasters the BBC and Voice of America were trying to break up the country with their coverage of the post-election unrest.

"The heads of VOA and BBC Persian are officially the spiritual children of (Benjamin) Netanyahu and (Avigdor) Lieberman and their aim is to weaken the national solidarity, threaten territorial integrity and disintegrate Iran," foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi told reporters.

He was referring to the prime minister and foreign minister of arch-foe Israel.

"This is the agenda given to VOA and BBC Persian after their budgets were approved by the US Congress and the British parliament. Those who work there are all in the same line."

On Sunday, Iran expelled the BBC's permanent correspondent in Tehran, Jon Leyne, accusing him of "supporting the rioters".