Today, Wednesday, Iranian authorities suspended the Internet service in several provinces, a day before new protests were called to on social media.

Leaflets on networking sites and some of the relatives - who were killed in unrest last month due to higher fuel prices - called for renewed protests and a memorial to those killed tomorrow.

The semi-official Iranian News Agency (ILNA) quoted a source familiar with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology as saying that the disruption of the service was by order of the "security authorities" and included the provinces of Alborz, Kurdistan, Zanjan, central and western Iran and Persia in the south.

The agency said - according to the same source - that more regions are likely to be affected by the disruption of international calls to mobile phones.

Last November, the authorities suspended the Internet service for about a week, to help curb the protests to raise fuel prices, which turned into bloody political protests in which dozens of protesters were killed.

Amnesty International said that 143 people were killed during the demonstrations, but the authorities refused this number, speaking of some of the dead, including members of the security forces, without providing the death toll.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran - which is based in New York - also reported the arrest of about 4,000 people during the recent protests.

It is difficult to disrupt the Internet service for demonstrators to post videos on communication sites to garner support or to broadcast reliable reports about the extent of the unrest in the country.