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Bahrain Military Shows Force After Three Die

17 February 2011 18:09 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Bahrain’s military tightened control of the capital Thursday, hours after riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets stormed a public square occupied by antigovernment protests early in the morning, killing at least three people, witnesses and hospital officials said, APA reports quoting The Wall Street Journal..
Columns of tanks and armored personnel carriers could be seen rolling on Manama’s highways or stationed at key intersections, alongside makeshift police checkpoints. At the Pearl Square roundabout, the scene of the morning’s clashes, the military presence was strongest, with scores of tanks and razor wire guarding the area and all evidence of the protesters’ former encampment erased.
Bahrain’s military broadcasted a statement across state media warning people to stay away from protest sites. A spokesman for the Bahrain Defense Force said the military would "take necessary measures to safeguard the security and safety of its citizens and residents and secure their freedom and properties from acts of violence."
Bahrain’s opposition movement, which suspended its members’ participation in parliament on Tuesday, resigned en masse after the clashes, according to a short statement by Abduljalil Khalil, head of al-Wefaq. The group is the largest opposition bloc in parliament, holding 18 of 40 seats in the lower house.
Arab foreign ministers of the Persian Gulf monarchies are set to hold an emergency meeting Thursday in Manama, Bahrain’s foreign ministry said, as the military firmed its grip on the capital.
After this morning’s crackdown on protestors, thousands streamed into the capital’s Salmanyah hospital complex, chanting that they would sacrifice their lives to avenge those protesters who were killed. Men carried hospital trolleys, while groups periodically surged towards the hospital gates, gripped by rumors that the police were about to storm the complex.
Qasim Omran, a consultant at the hospital, said three people had been killed in the early morning clashes and 226 people had been treated for injuries. Two others died in clashes with security forces earlier in the week.
Ambulance drivers and paramedics said they were stopped from rescuing the injured, and in some cases attacked by security forces. Jasim Al Sankes, a 26-year-old ambulance driver who had head and arm injuries, said he was removed from the ambulance and beaten. Mr. Omran said seven ambulance staff had been injured in the beatings.
Doctors marched through the hospital chanting antigovernment slogans. Some vowed they would join a funeral procession that may take place later Thursday if the hospital releases the bodies of the latest victims.
"We’re marching because of the terrible reaction of the government. A lot of children were dying in the roundabout, suffocating because of the teargas...It’s not acceptable," said Hassan Mohammed, a doctor at Salmanyah hospital.
Witnesses said security forces in Manama sealed off every entrance to Pearl Square, then entered the camp from four directions at about 3 a.m., firing tear gas indiscriminately, trampling tents and ripping banners. After police regained control of the square, they continued to chase protesters through side streets, they said.
In Bahrain, security forces had used tear gas and rubber bullets at close range to forcibly subdue protesters from the beginning, but hadn’t attacked Pearl Square since demonstrators took up residence there. On Tuesday, although U.S. President Barack Obama declined to comment on Bahrain when asked, the State Department asked for both the opposition and the regime to refrain from violence.
The crackdown came as a surprise after King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa had made a rare television appearance on Tuesday promising to investigate the deaths of two protesters said to have been killed by security forces in the melees. But as the protests have grown larger, they also have included more calls for the ruling family’s removal, and the shouts of "Death to the al-Khalifa," have increasingly been heard.
Fears have also grown within Bahrain and among its Persian Gulf neighbors that the Shiite-majority country would be at risk of widespread sectarian violence if the regime became more unstable. That hasn’t marked the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere, but Bahrain is governed by a Sunni minority and such tensions have simmered and sometimes boiled over violently before the recent unrest.
At Salmanyah Hospital’s critical room, friends and relatives of the injured filed in and out, many wailing or slumping against the hospital walls. Others showed photos on camera phones that they said were taken in the square, with some photos showing tanks, suggesting the military had joined the crackdown. Many other wounded were being taken to Ibn Al-Nafees Hospital, a private hospital a few miles away.
"The police started hitting everyone from every side," said a medical professional who declined to be named. "People had only one way to run, which was towards this hospital. There was one girl, she was a paramedic, carrying a baby and they hit her; I saw that."
Salmanyah hospital officials said two of the dead men, one 23 years old and the other 62, had been shot at close range with buck shot, a projectile containing hundreds of ball bearings. No official confirmation of the dead or wounded was immediately available.
Witnesses said police in Pearl Square first attempted to shoot tear gas at the protest from a turnpike overlooking the west of the square, but wind blew the gas back at them. More forces then attacked from the eastern side, first bombarding the encampment with tear gas, then storming it from all sides, the witnesses said.
A 50-year-old man who identified himself as Hussein, who had stayed in the roundabout since it was first occupied, said between 5,000 and 10,000 protesters were in the square at the time of the attackâ€”though his estimate couldn’t be verified. "Then hundreds of police came," Hussein said. "We thought that if we were there they wouldn’t do this. We were wrong."

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