The atmosphere have been tense in Bahrain since Thursday’s violent military crackdown on protesters while thousands of angry Bahrainis began Friday burying the martyrs of the violent police raid on pro-democracy protesters in Manama.
Yet, Friday was not better. Bahraini troops shot at demonstrators, leaving tens of people martyred and wounded amid a suspicious Arab and international silence.
According to press reports, Bahraini police opened fire on anti-regime protesters in the capital, wounding dozens of them, a day after four people were martyred and some 200 wounded.
Marchers had been trying to reach Pearl Square, the epicenter of pro-democracy protests that have shaken the Gulf island state, when police opened fire.
Witnesses said the gunfire was targeting them near Salmaniya hospital, about two kilometers (one mile) to the south.
As details of the latest violence emerged, Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa promised to open a national dialogue, once calm returns.
In his speech on television, Prince Salman said "our dialogue must take place in a climate of total calm," adding that "no issue can be excluded from that dialogue."
Earlier, angry Bahrainis in the nearby village of Sitra buried the four people martyred one day earlier as the army enforced a tight clampdown across the capital of the monarchy.
Thousands of mourners in Sitra chanted slogans calling for the ouster of the al-Khalifa dynasty's regime, and sang songs urging unity between the compatriots.
They shouted "people want to overthrow the regime" as they wrapped the bodies of Ali Khodeir and Mahmud Mekki with Bahraini flags. A third victim, Issa Abdulhasan, was buried in the village of Karzakan, while the fourth, Ali Mumen, was buried in Sitra later.
On Thursday, Foreign ministers from the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council rushed to cover the massacre committed by the king of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, against the protesters in the Pearl square, which seems to have been carried out on behalf of the six Gulf countries and motivated of shared fear from the opposition demanding more freedom and democracy and social justice.
Troops and tanks have locked down Manama, the Bahraini capital, and a ban has been announced on public gatherings. The Bahraini government has issued warnings about taking strict measures against pro-democracy protesters, amid the ongoing popular uprisings in the country.
On Thursday, at least five protesters were martyred and about 230 others injured after Bahraini security forces stormed a protest camp in Pearl Square in downtown Manama and fired tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators while they were sleeping in their camps, beating men and women inside and blasting some with shotgun sprays of bird-shot.
Salmaniya hospital was thrown into chaos by a stream of dozens of wounded from the Pearl roundabout, brought in by ambulances and private cars. At least one of the bodies of the victims had signs of bloody holes from pellets fired from police shotguns.
Later in the day, eighteen members of Bahrain parliament resigned from their posts in a show of protest against the violent crackdown.
However, Bahrain's King praised the military for its nighttime crackdown while he paid a visit to the Defense Force General Command and discussed the raid as well as his government's ongoing strategy.
The US Department of Defense has refused to condemn the Bahraini government's crackdown on protesters, saying Washington is monitoring the developments in Bahrain.
Khalid Al Khalifa, Bahrain's foreign minister, justified the crackdown as necessary because the demonstrators were "polarizing 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 "trying to evacuate the square".
Tiny Bahrain is a pillar of US's military framework in the region. It hosts the US Navy's 5th Fleet, which the US sees as a critical counterbalance to Iran.
Source: Agencies
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