MANAMA, (Reuters) – Bahraini police stormed a protest camp in central Manama today, killing three people in a swift move to prevent protesters from emulating Egyptians whose Tahrir Square protests helped topple Hosni Mubarak.
“Police are coming, they are shooting teargas at us,” one protester told Reuters by telephone as the crackdown began. Another said: “I am wounded, I am bleeding. They’re killing us.”
Armoured vehicles rumbled through the capital overnight to regain control of Pearl Square, a road junction demonstrators had sought to turn into a protest base like Cairo’s Tahrir.
Thousands of overwhelmingly Shi’ite protesters, emboldened by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, took to Bahrain’s streets three days ago demanding more say in the Gulf Arab kingdom where a Sunni Muslim family rules over a majority Shi’ite 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),” Ibrahim Mattar, a lawmaker from the main Shi’ite opposition Wefaq party, said of the police swoop at 3 a.m.
“It is confirmed two have died,” he said. “More are in critical condition.”
Another Wefaq MP, Sayed Hadi, told Reuters a third protester had been killed, bringing the overall death toll to five since protests began.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said that security forces had cleared Pearl roundabout of demonstrators, and that a section of a main road was temporarily blocked.
“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 today. Abandoned tents, blankets and rubbish dotted the area, and teargas wafted through the air.
Helicopters clattered over the city and tow-trucks dragged away cars abandoned by protesters, their tyres squealing on the tarmac because the brakes were still on.
One protester said he had driven away two people who had been wounded by rubber bullets.
A teenager shepherded a sobbing woman into a car, saying she had been separated from her 2-year-old daughter in the chaos. At a main hospital, about 200 people gathered to mourn and protest.
On Wednesday the Wefaq party demanded a new constitution that would move the country toward democracy.
“We’re not looking for a religious state. We’re looking for a civilian democracy…in which people are the source of power, and to do that we need a new constitution,” its secretary-general Sheikh Ali Salman told a news conference.
Elsewhere in Manama, life went on as usual. In one upscale area, foreigners were sipping cappucinos in street cafes or strolling past in jogging clothes.
The religious divide that separates Bahrain’s ruling family from most of its subjects has led to sporadic unrest since the 1990s, and the country’s stability is being closely watched as protest movements blow through North Africa and the Middle East.
Bahrain, a small oil producer, is more prone to unrest than most of the Gulf Arab region where, in an unwritten pact, rulers have traded part of their oil wealth for political submission.
