Bahrain army controls capital; Crackdown on protesters by Police in Pearl Square; 5 dead

 Without warning, hundreds of heavily armed riot police officers rushed into Pearl Square Manama early on Thursday, firing shotguns, tear gas and concussion grenades at the thousands of demonstrators who were sleeping there as part of a widening protest against the nation's absolute monarchy.

At least five people died, some of them reportedly killed in their sleep with scores of shotgun pellets to the face and chest, according to a witness and three doctors who received the dead and at least 200 wounded at a hospital here. The witness and the physicians spoke in return for anonymity for fear of official reprisals.

The abrupt crackdown on what had been a carnival-like protest injected a new anger into demonstrations calling on King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa to enact reforms. "Death to Khalifa, death to Khalifa," hundreds of protesters chanted on Thursday outside a hospital as women ran screaming through wards and corridors seeking lost children.

"They made the people feel safe," said a nurse, Fatima Ali, referring to what had initially seemed to be official tolerance of the huge protest in Pearl Square, emulating an uprising in Cairo's Tahrir Square that brought down President Hosni Mubarak. "Then they killed them."

by Michael Slackman and Nadim Audi, New York Times
Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/crackdown-on-protesters-in-bahrains-pearl-square-5-dead-85972?cp

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