If even a quarter of the reports coming out of Iran this evening are accurate, there has been as major escaltion in violence between pro-Mousavi activists and the pro-Ahmadinejad militias.

First up, dissident arrests. According to multiple outlets now, reformist leader Mohammad Ali Abtahi has been placed under arrest for what supporters say was called “seditious acts”. Abtahi isn’t just any leading activist, either. He served as vice president of Iran under Khatami, so he’s a big fish.

Next, the building for the official media in Iran (Seda va Seema), located in the city of Tabriz, is reported to be on fire. Local Iranian sources say that there are “many dead”. There are no official reports on fatalities at this point, but initial pictures from the scene show that the fire is quite large.

Third, the Wall Street Journal reports that a student-run news service in Tehran is reporting that, “five students — two women and three men — were killed Sunday night in dormitory raids by Basij forces at Tehran University.” As with the previous report, this one couldn’t be independently confirmed.

For a potentially more reliable report, there’s this from the UK Guardian:

A Farsi website, Balatarin, carried an unconfirmed report that seven people had been killed in the southern city of Shiraz following confrontations with riot police at the local university. Five busloads of plainclothes officers had been sent to confront the demonstrators during Sunday’s protests, but were said to have been unable to prevent them from being joined by members of the public and marching to one of the city’s main squares. It is unclear whether all those said to have died were students.

Finally, TimesOnline reports roaming groups of thugs on bicycles opening fire on young Iranians following a rally. Considering what we saw following the pro-Mousavi rally yesterday afternoon, that wouldn’t be out of the question.

P.S. The Huffington Post has actually done a great job covering the events unfolding in Iran. Props.

Update: PersianKiwi, one of the well-known and trusted Iranians on Twitter, reports more bad news:

Tehran hotels under high security to stop Iranians from contacting foreign press…

most roads out of Tehran blocked…

anyone with camera or laptop is attacked in street…

The situation seems to be deteriorating, not improving.