Five dead as Bahraini police clear camps in Pearl Square

Bahraini police firing shotguns and tear gas crushed the camp in Manama of a month-old pro-democracy protest yesterday in an operation that left five dead and sparked Shiite outrage across the region.

The violence prompted US President Barack Obama, whose country is a close ally of Bahrain, to express “deep concern,” as his secretary of state said the deployment of Gulf troops to quell political unrest was the wrong response.

Early yesterday morning, hundreds of riot police backed by tanks and helicopters assaulted demonstrators in Manama’s Pearl Square, clearing the symbolic heart of the uprising in the strategic Gulf kingdom.

The Shiite opposition, which has been the backbone of protests demanding political change, said three demonstrators were killed in the raid, while the government said two police died in hit-and-run attacks by opposition motorists.

“We now have three martyrs,” Khalil Marzouk, deputy head of the Al-Wefaq movement and a member of Parliament, said. He added that the situation was “catastrophic,” with hospitals closed off and Shiite villages surrounded.

The violence came a day after King Hamad, supported by troops who arrived on Tuesday along with armoured vehicles from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, declared a three-month state of emergency in his Sunni-ruled state.

In the wake of the violence, Mr Obama telephoned King Hamad and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to express “deep concern” about the crackdown, his spokesman said.

Ms Clinton criticised the Gulf deployment, in remarks to journalists in Cairo.

She said it was “the wrong track. And we believe that a long-term solution is only possible through a political process.”

“What is happening in Bahrain is alarming, and it is unfortunately diverting attention and effort away from the political and economic track. That is the only way forward to resolve the legitimate differences of the Bahrainis themselves.”

Police and troops on Wednesday 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 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Human rights activists said medics seeking to tend to wounded Shiites had been beaten by police, injured people left untreated, and security forces blocked access to hospitals.

Bahrain’s Health Minister Nizar Baharna, a Shiite, announced his resignation after police burst into a Manama hospital and 12 Shiite judges also stepped down in protest at what they termed the “excessive use of force.”

Police arrived at Pearl Square in tanks and buses before moving in on the mainly Shiite Muslim demonstrators, who had been camped out in the square for a month.

Thick clouds of back smoke mixed with tear gas over the area as the protesters’ tents were set on fire.

As helicopters hovered overhead, troops then entered the nearby financial centre to clear it of demonstrators’ 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 Harbour business complex, the centre of a regional finance hub that hosts major international banks and multinational corporations.