Bahraini troops open fire at protesters

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Bahraini troops open fire at protesters

By ston and Frederik Richter ston And Frederik Richter –

1 hr 5 mins ago

MANAMA (Reuters) – Bahraini troops shot at demonstrators on Friday and wounded

many, a former Shi'ite lawmaker said, as government crackdowns on protests in

the Middle East and North Africa turned increasingly violent.

While millions of Egyptians celebrated their ouster of Hosni Mubarak after 30

years, protesters elsewhere, inspired by their success, were engaged in

struggles against their own authoritarian rulers.

In Bahrain, troops shot at protesters near Pearl Square on Friday and wounded

many, a former Shi'ite lawmaker said, a day after police forcibly cleared a

protest camp from the traffic circle in Manama, killing 4 people and wounding

more than 230.

At least two people were killed in Yemen when security forces and pro-government

loyalists clashed with crowds demanding an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's

32-year rule.

And in Libya, soldiers were deployed in the streets of the country's second city

Benghazi after thousands of people demonstrated overnight over the killing of

what U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said were at least 24 protesters on Wednesday

and Thursday.

The unrest in the region -- particularly worries about its possible impact on

oil giant Saudi Arabia -- helped push Brent crude prices to a 28-month high of

$104 a barrel on Thursday.

It was a factor in gold prices extending early gains to five-week highs. By

Friday afternoon, Brent was just over $102 a barrel.

In Bahrain, Jalal Firooz, of the Wefaq bloc that resigned from parliament on

Thursday, said demonstrators, marking the death of a protester killed earlier

this week, had made for Pearl Square, where army troops opened fire.

" There are many casualties, some are critical, " he said. Police had no immediate

comment.

Thousands of Bahraini Shi'ites turned out on Friday to bury those killed in

Pearl Square.

Bahrain's most revered Shi'ite cleric, Sheikh Issa Qassem, described the police

attack as a " massacre " and said the government had shut the door to dialogue,

but stopped short of calling openly for street protests.

The violence was the worst in the Saudi-allied Gulf island kingdom in decades

and a sign of the nervousness of the Sunni royal family, long aware of simmering

discontent among the majority Shi'ites.

Thousands gathered at a mosque in the village of Sitra, south of Manama, for

Friday prayers and the funerals of three of those killed. " The people want the

fall of the regime, " they cried. " Justice, freedom and constitutional monarchy. "

In a loyalist demonstration in Manama, hundreds of pro-government supporters,

waving flags and pictures of the king, streamed through the streets, local TV

footage showed.

The army in Bahrain, a country of 1.3 million people of whom 600,000 are native

Bahrainis, had issued a warning to people to stay away from the center of the

capital.

Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet which projects U.S. military

muscle across the Middle East and Central Asia, and the tension could fuel

discontent among the Shi'ite minority in neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world's

biggest oil exporter.

GRENADE ATTACK

In Yemen, one protester was shot dead as police tried to disperse crowds in the

southern city of Aden, witnesses said, and another person was killed and seven

wounded when a hand grenade was thrown from a car into a crowd in Taiz, south of

the capital Sanaa.

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters thronged Taiz, where

pro-government crowds also turned out, and there were smaller rival

demonstrations in Sanaa.

Saleh, a U.S. ally against a Yemen-based al Qaeda wing that has launched attacks

at home and abroad, is struggling to end protests demanding political change and

jobs.

In Libya, whose once-ostracized leader Muammar Gaddafi has tried to mend ties

with the West, the authorities have cracked down hard.

Opponents of Gaddafi, leader of the North African country for more than 40

years, had designated Thursday a day of protest to try to emulate uprisings in

Egypt and Tunisia.

In the early hours of Friday, Gaddafi appeared briefly at Green Square in the

center of Tripoli where he was surrounded by supporters, but he did not speak.

Two Swiss-based exile groups said anti-government forces joined by defecting

police had seized control of the city of Al Bayda, 200 km (125 miles) northeast

of Benghazi and site of deadly clashes in recent days.

" Al Bayda is in the hands of the people, " Giumma el-Omami of the Libyan Human

Rights Solidarity group told Reuters in Geneva. Fathi al-Warfali of the Libyan

Committee for Truth and Justice said: " The city is out of the control of the

Gaddafi regime. "

Later, both groups, citing contacts in the city, said government militias were

attempting to retake Al Bayda, with residents fighting back with any weapons

they could find.

The reports could not be independently verified.

The funerals of those killed were expected in Benghazi and al Bayda on Friday

and could act as catalyst for further unrest.

In Egypt, a " Victory March " to celebrate Mubarak's overthrow a week ago was also

a reminder to the new military rulers of the power of the street and a memorial

to the 365 people who died in the 18-day uprising.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa; Writing by Janet Lawrence;

Editing by Myra Mac)