5 Million in Tehran Hail Revolution’s Anniversary : Iran: The Islamic regime marks its 11th year. There are shouts of ‘Death to America.’

NICOSIA, Cyprus —  Five million Iranians filled Tehran’s snow-covered Freedom Square on Sunday to mark the Islamic revolution’s 11th anniversary. Speakers urged them to continue their fight against the United States.

Leaders had worried that the anniversary celebration, the first since the death last June of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s supreme leader, would be poorly attended.

But Tehran television, monitored in Nicosia, said it was a massive turnout, with people carrying portraits of Khomeini, who launched the revolution, and banners pledging allegiance to his spiritual successor, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Khomeini, known as the imam, returned in triumph to Tehran on Feb. 1, 1979, after Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi had left the country. Ten days later, the shah’s government collapsed, and an Islamic republic was proclaimed.

The television said the crowds began massing in Azadi, or Freedom, Square on the capital’s western outskirts soon after dawn, even though temperatures had not climbed above zero. The report showed aerial shots of a wave of people converging on the square and footage of crowds chanting “Death to America!”

The official Islamic Republic News Agency said the square and surrounding streets were “so packed that it was difficult to move even a few inches.”

During the festivities, Khamenei declared a conditional amnesty for all prisoners to celebrate the anniversary, the television said. But it did not say how many prisoners were included or under what conditions.

President Hashemi Rafsanjani, addressing the multitudes, thanked them for turning out.

“This sea of united, informed and righteous people, who today have packed this square on the first anniversary of the revolution without our great imam, is the best and most telling demonstration of the . . . strength of the revolution and the commitment of the people to abide by the teachings of the imam,” he was quoted as saying.

Although pragmatic leaders such as Rafsanjani have been working to improve Iran’s radical image to attract Western investment and technology, spiritual leaders have held fast to Khomeini’s legacy.