Students Battle Police at German Embassy

Hundreds of students threatened to storm the German Embassy, stoning the compound and battling riot police in the first violence over a German court ruling accusing Iran of assassinating exiled dissidents. The court’s finding has created the worst diplomatic crisis between Iran and the West since 1989, when revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urged Muslims around the world to find and kill British author Salman Rushdie. Some of the roughly 400 students threw stones at the embassy in downtown Tehran, which since this weekend has been protected by a second, hastily erected 10-foot fence. Almost 1,000 riot police stood six deep outside the compound and linked arms--at one point, drawing their shotguns to make it clear to the students that they would not be allowed through. Police roughed up several students and briefly detained dozens. Unlike a demonstration a day earlier that drew 100,000 people, the protest seemed to take the Iranian government by surprise.