A girl aged two was today reported to have been killed in Bahrain when armed police stormed a peaceful protest camp to drive out anti-government demonstrators.
Graphic images were released showing the child's bullet-ridden body apparently lying in hospital. She is understood to have been with her parents when riot officers using tear gas, live bullets and clubs swooped on thousands camped in the main square in the capital Manama at around 3am local time.
Men, women and young children, many of whom had been sleeping, were forced out of Pearl Square in the unannounced crackdown by police in tanks and armoured vehicles.
Medical teams said people were shot, trampled, beaten and suffocated by the gas amid the chaos with plainclothes officers seen firing shotguns as protesters tried to flee. At least five people have been killed and more than 100 injured.
Demonstrators said they were chased by police down side streets as they fled. Several ambulance drivers reported being attacked as they tried to reach the injured.
Protesters said dozens of people were missing amid claims they had been arrested and imprisoned. Demonstrators also reported the army had taken people shot to a military hospital, which the public cannot visit.
Thousands started to gather this afternoon at another hospital, the Salmaniya, as they vowed to make it the new rallying point of the anti-government movement after police razed the camp and used barbed wire to seal off the square.
As many as 50 tanks rolled through the capital's streets today as the military locked down the Gulf island's capital and banned protests. Images of the dead girl and other killed demonstrators were rapidly circulated by mobile phone. Protester Ali al-Haji said: "We send this picture so the world can see what the government is doing to us."
He said: "The first person responsible for this is the king. He is responsible for the killing, for the attacks on women and children. They attacked us. They raised the bar that we will now meet. We are ready to throw the king out. We will not stop."
Mahmoud Mansouri, a protester, said police surrounded the camp and then quickly moved in. "We yelled, 'We are peaceful! Peaceful!' The women and children were attacked just like the rest of us.
"They moved in as soon as the media left us. They knew what they were doing," he said. Dr Sadek Akikri, 44, said he was tending to injured protesters at a makeshift medical tent in the square when the police stormed in.
He said he was tied up and severely beaten and then thrown on a bus with others.
He said the police beating him spoke Urdu, the main language of Pakistan. A pillar of the protesters' demands is to end the Sunni regime's practice of granting citizenship to Sunnis from other countries to try to dilute the strength of the majority Shias. Many of the new citizens work in security.
The deaths have fuelled the protesters' fury and demands and they have now started to call for the removal of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, previously seen as untouchable.
Protesters, inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, have been calling for a major political overhaul in the tiny kingdom, which is next door to Saudi Arabia and has a native population of 600,000.
The 70 per cent Shia majority have been ruled over by the Sunni al-Khalifa monarchy for more than 200 years. Despite their greater numbers the Shias claim they are blocked from senior government posts or positions of power in the military and security services and that they face systematic discrimination.
Shia opposition leader Abdul Jalil Khalil today said his 18 parliament members had resigned in protest at the killings.
Tens of thousands have poured into the central square since Monday, calling for change and a move to a constitutional democracy.
Many demanded that the government provide more jobs and better housing and the release of all political detainees. Bahrain is a pillar of Washington's military framework in the region. It hosts the US Navy's 5th Fleet, a counterbalance to Iran's efforts to expand its influence in the region.
Any prolonged crisis opens the door for a flashpoint between Iran and its Arab rivals in the Gulf.
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Reader views (2)
Please tell me What was a 2 year old doing at a protest rally (whether peaceful or otherwise)??
- bjj, Sydney, Australia, 17/02/2011 20:30
Report abuseHe that lives by the sword shall die by the sword.
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, your time is up...- Baron von Richtofen, Biggin Hill, 17/02/2011 20:17
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Thursday, 17 February 2011
Girl, 2, shot dead as Bahrain police swoop on peaceful protest camp | News
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