[URL]http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201121714223324820.html[/URL]
At least two pro-reform protesters were killed and dozens were injured as hundreds of Bahraini riot police, armed with tear gas, rubber bullets and clubs stormed the main square in the capital as protesters slept.
The pre-dawn assault on Pearl Roundabout, which has become the focal point for protesters demanding reform, was meant to disperse the crowd and regain control of the area.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Salmaniya hospital, the main medical facility in Manama, Maryama Alkawaka of Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said that she saw dozens of injured demonstrators being wheeled into emergency rooms.
"People were attacked while they were sleeping. There was no warning," she said. "And when they ran, the police attacked them from the direction they fled to."
In a statement, the Bahraini interior ministry said that "security forces evacuated the area of Pearl Roundabout from protesters, after trying all opportunities for dialogue with them, in which some positively responded and left quietly."
Brigadier Tariq Hassan Al Hassan, a spokesman "called upon people to follow the constitution and the law while expressing their freedom of expression."
An Al Jazeera correspondent in the Pearl Roundabout area, said that he heard loud booms in the square, and felt a strong tear gas in the air.
"The police came in a quick move, using tear gas. It looks like they are trying to move the protesters away from the square, but this is no small protest," he said.
"Authorities are acting because they see clearly how big this is getting."
Matar Ibrahim, an opposition member of the parliament, said that women and children were among the injured.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Salmaniya hospital, he also said that at least that many of the wounded were in critical condition.
An Al Jazeera online producer in Manama said police helicopters are circling above the square.
"[Thursday] morning's call to prayer is struggling to become louder than the choppers circling overhead. The roads are nearly empty because of the police blockades, though just a little while ago, vehicles were travelling freely to and from the Lulu area," he said.
Earlier, two other people were killed in previous pro-reform protests that rocked the tiny Gulf island, sparking more angry demonstrations and calls for the ouster of the ruling monarch.
[B]Apology and pledge to probe[/B]
In a [URL="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/2011215194859291708.html"]rare apology[/URL], the king of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, made a televised appearance on Tuesday to offer condolences on the protesters' deaths.
He expressed his condolences for "the deaths of two of our dear sons", and said a committee would investigate the killings.
"We will ask legislators to look into this issue and suggest needed laws to resolve it," he said, adding that peaceful protests were legal.
Alkwaka, the human rights activist, said that the fresh crackdown on peaceful protesters cast a doubt on the king's pledge for investigation and calm.
"People are now asking: is this the investigation that the king promised?" she asked.
[B]
Chants against king[/B]
Nazea Saeed, a journalist with Radio Monte Carlo, said hundreds of people gathered at the hospital where the victims of the police attack are treated.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from the scene, she said the crowd is chanting: "Down with Al-Khalifa", in reference to the country's kingdom.
"People are also chanting that the blood of the victims will not be in vein," she added.
Ruled and dominated by a Sunni minority, Bahrain has a Shia majority population. Tension between the two communities has been festering for years.
To balance the population, the government is accused of granting thousands of citizenships to Sunni workers. Saeed said this continues to be a source of deep tension.
Earlier, an Al Jazeera correspondent said pro-reform protesters initially demanded a constitutional monarchy. But as demonstrations gathered momentum, and as police crackdown on protests, many upped the ante on the kingdom, calling its ouster.
A key ally of the US in the region, Bahrain houses a major military base for Washington.
2ND Link Reuters [url]http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/02/17/uk-bahrain-idUKTRE71E7JC20110217[/url]
(Reuters) - Bahraini police broke up a protest camp in a central Manama square on Thursday, killing at least two people, as they tried to end three days of demonstrations inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, witnesses and the opposition said.
"Police are coming, they are shooting teargas at us," one demonstrator told Reuters by telephone. Another said: "I am wounded, I am bleeding. They are killing us."
One protester said he had driven away two people who had been wounded by rubber bullets.
Thousands of overwhelmingly Shi'ite protesters took to the streets this week demanding more say in the Gulf Arab island kingdom where a family of Sunni Muslims rules over a population that mostly belongs to the Shi'ite sect.
Hundreds had camped out at Pearl Square, a road junction in the capital that they sought to turn into the base of a long-running protest like that at Cairo's Tahrir Square which led to the downfall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
But the square appeared nearly empty of protesters early on Thursday after police moved in and was littered with abandoned tents, blankets and rubbish. The smell of teargas wafted through the air and two ambulances were seen rushing from the scene.
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.
"I was there... The men were running away, but the women and kids could not run as easily, some are still inside (the square)," said Ibrahim Mattar, a parliamentarian from the main Shi'ite opposition Wefaq party, which has walked out of parliament.
"It is confirmed two have died," he said. "More are in critical condition."
On Wednesday the party demanded a new constitution that would move the country towards 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," the group's general secretary Sheikh Ali Salman told a news conference.
There was no immediate comment from Bahraini officials.
BULWARK
The religious divide that separates Bahrain's ruling family from most of its subjects has led to sporadic unrest since the 1990s, and Bahrain's stability is being closely watched as protest movements blow through North Africa and the Middle East.
It is considered the state most vulnerable to popular unrest in a Gulf Arab region where, in an unwritten pact, rulers have traded a share of their oil wealth for political submission.
( This was done at 4am in the morning so I apologise for any problems. If there is any cleanup to be made in my post then please can the mods clean this up thankyou. Also please remember demoracy is important for everyone. Goodnight. )
Shit gets serious when you kill your own people.
fuck, better not cancel the bahrain GP
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