BAHRAIN DECLARED a three-month state of emergency as a second contingent of forces from gulf states arrived in the kingdom yesterday to support its government following persistent protests.
Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa asked the head of the military to guarantee security, state television said.
Police opened fire on protesters in the village of Sitra, killing one, the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights said in a statement.
Hundreds were injured, according to Ali Al-Akri, a doctor at the emergency room of the Salmaniya Medical Complex in the capital, Manama.
Imposing a state of emergency “probably means they are running out of options”, said Gala Riani, a Middle East analyst at London-based forecaster IHS Global Insight.
Bahrain yesterday withdrew its ambassador to Tehran in protest at a warning from the Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, to the kingdom not to harm demonstrators, almost all of whom are Shias. Meanwhile, the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia said they felt obliged to intervene, claiming that continuing unrest in Bahrain could threaten them.
Several Bahrainis were killed in Manama yesterday by state forces that were targeting mainly Shia towns and villages deemed to be supportive of the popular uprising.
As hundreds of injured were ferried along the corridors of Salmaniya hospital, there was an atmosphere of dread among medics that the Persian Gulf island regime had lost all restraint under international law.
“This is all-out war against civilians who are simply demanding democracy,” said a doctor.
Less than 24 hours previously, a first large convoy of Saudi-led troops arrived in Bahrain.
At the same time, the government said it would “never tolerate any disruption of social peace”.
Doctors at Salmaniya hospital and elsewhere, such as Sitrah and Isa town, say they have been labelled “disloyal” to the regime. They say their personal details are being circulated on the internet and that they are living in fear for their lives.
Yesterday’s violence came after a weekend of unrest unleashed by state forces, which saw as many as 1,000 civilians injured by live fire, rubber bullets and, according to senior consultants, the deployment of illegal nerve poisons.
“What we are seeing are crimes against humanity,” said a surgeon.
Among the injured yesterday was the chief of ambulance services, Mohammed Abdul Rahim, who lay unconscious from wounds after he was reportedly attacked by state forces while trying to help victims.
Medics spoke of how three ambulances were hijacked by state forces.
“They are preventing us from attending the wounded,” said one nurse. “This is what this government is doing to its people. Please, the international community must do something to help us.”
Arif Rajab, a surgeon at Salmaniya, said: “The US Fifth Fleet is only one kilometre from this hospital.
“One phone call and this slaughter would stop.”
– (Additional reporting Bloomberg, Guardianservice)
FOREIGN AFFAIRS ADVISORY
Media advisory from the Department of Foreign Affairs on situation in Bahrain:
The department is advising against all travel to Bahrain and will continue to monitor the situation.
Travel advice for Bahrain will be updated regularly on its website dfa.ie.