2011年2月17日星期四

Some of them are severely injured with gunshots

Troops and tanks have locked down Manama, the Bahraini capital, and a ban has been announced on public gatherings as pro-reform supporters bury their dead after a day of violent security crackdown.
Tanks and armoured personnel carriers were patrolling the streets of Manama on Friday, where checkpoints have been set up by the country's military.
Al Jazeera's correspondent, who cannot be named for security reasons, reported that hundreds of people observed the funeral of three people who had been killed in a pre-dawn police raid on a protest.
The crowd at the funerals in Sitra on Friday, however, were not as large as those seen during previous funerals, our correspondent reported.
He said this was because of a heavy security presence on the streets, with police and army closing off roads.
"Many of those who in the past came out [to protests] ... are afraid. They're frightened and they don't want to turn up at a protest like this because they are fearful for their lives," he said.
He said that while it was "almost impossible" to confirm a figure for those who had gone missing during a violent crackdown on protests, one opposition politician put the number at 70.
Early on Thursday morning , riot police using clubs and tear gas broke up a crowd of protesters in Manama, killing at least four people.
Hours after the attack at Manama's main Pearl roundabout, the military announced the ban on gatherings, saying on state TV that it had "key parts" of the capital under its control.

Khalid Al Khalifa, Bahrain's foreign minister, justified the crackdown as necessary because the demonstrators were "polarising the country" and pushing it to the "brink of the sectarian abyss".
Speaking after meeting with his Gulf counterparts, he said the violence was “regrettable”.
He denied, however, that the military had used "any weapons at the people", insisting that security forces were only "try[ing] to evacuate the square".
Two people had died in police firing on protesters prior to Thursday's deadly police raid.
An Al Jazeera correspondent, who cannot be named for security reasons, said that hospitals are full of injured people after Wednesday night's police raid on the pro-reform demonstrators.
"Some of them are severely injured with gunshots. Patients include doctors and emergency personnel who were overrun by the police while trying to attend to the wounded."
Another Al Jazeera online producer said that booms could be heard from different parts of the city, suggesting that "tear-gas is being used to disperse the protesters in several neighbourhoods".
After several days of holding back, Bahrain's Sunni Arab rulers unleashed a heavy crackdown, trying to stamp out the first anti-government upheaval to reach the Arab states of the Gulf since the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

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