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| Arabia |
| Bahrain police break up protest camp, four killed |
| 2011-02-18 |
| [Arab News] Bahraini police stormed a protest camp in a central Manama square early on Thursday, killing at least four people, and armored vehicles rumbled through the capital as the government tried to quell three days of protest. "Police are coming, they are shooting teargas at us," one demonstrator told Rooters by telephone as police began dispersing demonstrators. Another said: "I am maimed, I am bleeding. They are killing us." Later, more than 50 armored vehicles rolled down a highway toward Pearl Square, a road junction that demonstrators had sought to turn into a base for protests like those in Cairo's Tahrir Square which led to the fall of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. Thousands of overwhelmingly Shiite protesters, emboldened by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, took to Bahrain's streets this week demanding more say in the Gulf Arab kingdom where a Sunni Mohammedan family rules over a majority Shiite population. "I was there... The men were running away, but the women and kids could not run as easily, some are still inside (the square)," said Ibrahim Mattar, a politician from the main Shiite opposition Wefaq party. "It is confirmed two have died," he said. "More are at death's door." Another Wefaq MP, Sayed Hadi, told Rooters a third protester had been killed, bringing the overall corpse count to five since protests flared in Bahrain this week. "This is real terrorism," said Abdul Jalil Khalil, also from Wefaq which has walked out of parliament and was due to meet later in the day to decide a response to the events. "Whoever took the decision to attack the protest was aiming to kill." From a distance, the square appeared nearly empty of protesters early on Thursday after police moved in. Abandoned tents, blankets and rubbish dotted the area, and the smell of teargas wafted through the air. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 It almost goes without saying that the Iranians have been trying to stimulate the Gulf States Shiites to cut up rough, to destabilize their governments and make them afraid of Iran. By coming down on them like a ton of bricks sends a signal that the Bahrainis are not going to stand for it. Interesting note: There is a suggestion that the Bahrain government was using Saudi tanks. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-02-18 09:19 |