A Thursday ceremony to mourn the victims of Iran's post-election protests has been postponed for a week, an opposition party Web site said.The statement was posted Wednesday evening on the Web site of presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi's party -- some hours after security forces wielding clubs and firing weapons crushed a planned demonstration at a square in the capital, Tehran.
More than a half-dozen witnesses said the security forces outnumbered protesters in Baharestan Square and used overwhelming force -- clubbing them with batons, beating women and old men, and firing weapons into the air to disperse them.
The statement on the Etemad-e-Melli (National Trust) party site said the commemoration of "the martyrs of the republic and freedom" cannot be held Thursday and has instead been pushed back by a week.
It did not offer an alternate date.
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Exact figures are hard to come by on how many people have died in the protests, which began after the June 12 presidential elections.
According to official figures, 17 people have been killed in clashes with government forces. But CNN has received unconfirmed reports of as many as 150 deaths related to the popular uprising on just Saturday alone. Iran's government has restricted media access in the country.
The postponement was announced on the Web site of presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi's party Wednesday evening.
"Thursday's ceremony was meant to commemorate the "the martyrs of the republic and freedom," the statement on the Etemad-e-Melli (National Trust) party site said.
The event was postponed for a week, but the Web site did not offer an alternate date.
According to official figures, 17 people have died in clashes with government forces since the protests began.
CNN has received unconfirmed reports of as many as 150 deaths related to the popular uprising on just Saturday alone.
The mood in Tehran on Thursday was "defiant but nervous," said one resident, whom CNN is not identifying for safety reasons.
Life was returning to routine, "but not like before the election," the resident wrote. Security forces were ever-present, he said. And after days of protest, the city was calmer.
The number of demonstrators venturing into Tehran's streets had fallen since Sunday, said CNN's Reza Sayah, who returned to the U.S. Wednesday from Iran.
He said exhaustion from consecutive days of protest may have combined with fear of government reprisals.
CNN has received numerous accounts of night-time roundups of opposition activists and international journalists by government forces.
After opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi met with university teachers Wednesday, police arrested 70 attendees and took them to an undisclosed location, his Web site said.
CNN has not been able to verify the authenticity of the site.
The key to what happens next, Sayah said, depended on what role Moussavi played. His supporters say he was robbed of a victory in the June 12 election and are demanding a fresh one.
The official results gave incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a landslide victory.
In the face of protests, authorities offered a partial recount. And on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said it conducted a recount of some ballot boxes in the presence of another defeated candidate's representatives -- and found no discrepancies. Video Watch more on the protests »
Iran's government has restricted media access in the country, making it difficult to ascertain exact figures.
Wednesday afternoon, security forces used overwhelming force to crack down on protesters who had flocked to Baharestan Square near the parliament building in Tehran, according to more than a half-dozen witnesses.
Police charged at the gathering -- clubbing demonstrators with batons, beating women and old men, and firing weapons into the air to disperse them, witnesses said. Video Watch what Iranian television is reporting »
"They were waiting for us," one person said. "They all have guns and riot uniforms. It was like a mouse trap."
The melee extended beyond the square, one woman said.
"They emptied buses that were taking people there and let the private cars go on ... and then, all of a sudden, some 500 people with clubs of wood, they came out of the Hedayat Mosque and they poured into the streets and they started beating everyone," she said. Video Watch more on diplomatic standoff »
Government-run Press TV gave a starkly different account, saying only about 200 protesters had gathered in front of the parliament and 50 others in a nearby square. All were dispersed by a heavy police presence, it said.
A person who answered the phone at the nearby Bank of Melli hospital said no one had been admitted as a result of any clashes.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has endorsed the election results, reiterated Wednesday that the government "will never give in to coercive demands with regards to Iran's presidential elections," Press TV said.
Also Wednesday, Iranian authorities said they had arrested several foreign nationals, some with British passports, in connection with the country's post-election unrest.
The British foreign office said it was looking into the claims.
The Iranian government has long blamed other countries, especially Britain, for "meddling" in its affairs but has offered no proof.
Iran also said that 26-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan, whose videotaped death has made her a face of the protests, might have been shot by mistake.
The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said snipers may have mistaken her for the sister of a Monafeghin.
Monafeghin refers to the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran, which promotes a Marxist government for Iran and has waged a campaign against the fundamentalist Islamic Tehran government -- including bombings that have killed politicians, judges and Cabinet members.
U.S. President Barack Obama's administration is still walking a diplomatic tightrope in finding the right response to the crisis. The White House said Wednesday that it was rescinding invitations to Iranian diplomats overseas for U.S. Independence Day celebrations.
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