Six Bahraini protesters killed and more than 400 others wounded Wednesday. Five killed and more than 1000 wounded Tuesday.
Six Bahraini protesters killed and more than 400 others wounded Wednesday. Five killed and more than 1000 wounded Tuesday.
WEDNESDAY EVENTS
Bahraini police - firing shot guns and tear gas - crushed a peaceful month-old anti-government protest on Wednesday in an operation which left six dead and sparked people’s outrage across the region.
Hundreds of riot police backed by tanks and helicopters assaulted demonstrators in Manama's Pearl Square in the early morning, clearing the symbolic heart of the uprising in the strategic Gulf kingdom.
Bahrain's opposition said three protesters were killed in that raid alone, which was backed by tanks and helicopters.
On Wednesday night, the situation was catastrophic with hospitals closed off and protesters’ villages cordoned.
Snipers were also in 24/24 service, murdering armless civilians in front of media cameras.
Police and troops fanned out across the city where protests and gatherings were banned and a dusk-to-dawn curfew was slapped on the business district which had been under the protesters' control for three days.
Shiite villages around the city remained cut off by the security forces and phone lines were down. A curfew was announced in central Manama from 4:00 pm to 4:00 am and protests were officially banned.
Police arrived at Pearl Square in tanks and buses early Wednesday before moving in on the mainly Shiite Muslim demonstrators, who had been camped out for a month in the square.
Thick clouds of black smoke mixed with tear gas over the area as the protesters' tents were set on fire. Explosions believed to be caused by cooking gas canisters also shook the area.
As helicopters hovered overhead, troops then entered the nearby financial centre to clear it of roadblocks and the handfuls of protesters still remaining after clashes there on Sunday injured more than 200 people.
Shots were heard as troops escorted a bulldozer into the Financial Harbor business complex, the centre of a regional finance hub that hosts major international banks and multinational corporations.
Meanwhile, Saudi troops forced their way into Salmaniya hospital on Wednesday where hundreds of people were receiving treatment for injuries suffered in clashes with government forces a day earlier. Doctors, nurses and relatives of the victims were not allowed to leave or to enter the building.
The violence came a day after King Hamad, supported by armed forces which arrived on Tuesday from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, declared a three-month state of emergency in his state.
REPERCUSSIONS
Human rights activists said medics seeking to tend to wounded protesters had been beaten by police, injured people had been left untreated and police were blocking access to hospitals.
Bahrain's Health Minister Nizar Baharna announced his resignation after police burst into a Manama hospital. Another 12 judges also stepped down in protest at what they termed the "excessive use of force."
Opposition chief Sheikh Ali Salman said the US-backed regime was acting like Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi and using "extreme brutality" against ordinary people.
CLERICS
Five top Bahraini clerics have urged the international community to intervene as the violence escalates further following the deployment of foreign troops in the Persian Gulf state.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Sheikh Issa Qassem, Seyyed Abdullah al-Ghoraifi, Sheikh Abdul Hussain al-Setri and Sheikh Mohammad Saleh al-Rabiei warned that a “horrible massacre” is expected at Manama's Pearl Square, where people are only peacefully demanding their rights, IRIB reported.
INTERNATIONAL
As the upheaval dragged in regional rivals and the United States, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned the intervention of Saudi-led forces. Iran's Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the Bahraini leadership had committed a "strategic and political" blunder and warned that the intervention would cost its "legitimacy."
The spiritual guide of Iraq Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, "appealed to Bahraini authorities to stop violence against unarmed citizens" and called instead for Manama to turn to "peaceful methods."
In Beirut, hundreds of Lebanese held a rally to denounce the Saudi military intervention.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has personally urged King Hamad, of the Al-Khalifa dynasty to respond to the protests with "reform, not repression", his spokesman said.
A total of 769 civil society organizations have denounced Wednesday the Gulf military intervention, asking the Arab-neighboring countries of the kingdom to withdraw from the Bahraini land.
Several people have lost their lives and hundreds of others have sustained injuries following the Bahraini government's violent crackdown on demonstrators.
On Tuesday, six people died and more than 1,000 others were wounded in clashes between anti-regime protesters and Bahrain's security forces.
Thousands of Bahraini anti-government protesters are still camping out in Manama's Pearl Square, which has become the symbol of the popular drive for change.
Around 16 people have been martyred since the protests started in Pearl Square last month, as mainly activists took to the streets emboldened by revolts that toppled autocratic regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.
