Protests again run red

MANAMA, Bahrain — Security forces opened fire Friday on Bahraini protesters for a second-straight day, wounding at least 50 people as thousands marched toward Pearl Square in an uprising that sought to break the political grip of the Persian Gulf nation’s leaders.

Once again, Bahrain authorities showed no hesitation in using force against demonstrators who escalated demands to bring down the whole ruling monarchy.

President Barack Obama condemned the use of violence against protesters in Bahrain, as well as in Libya and Yemen, where crackdowns by old-guard regimes were reported. A Libyan doctor said 35 protesters were killed in the eastern city of Benghazi during a confrontation with security forces, while four people were killed and 48 were wounded during protests called as part of a “Friday of Rage” in Yemen.

The continuing wave of anger in the Arab world followed successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

Critically injured protesters were again rushed to Manama’s main Salmaniya hospital, which also received the dead and wounded after riot police smashed a protest encampment early Thursday in the landmark square.

Some doctors and medics were in tears as they tended to the wounded. X-rays showed bullets still lodged inside victims.

“This is a war,” said Dr. Bassem Deif, an orthopedic surgeon examining people with bullet-shattered bones.

Of the 50 injured, seven were critically hurt, a Health Ministry official said. Seven people have died in Bahrain’s unrest this week, including five Thursday, and more than 200 have been wounded.

Protesters on Friday described a chaotic scene of tear-gas clouds, bullets flying from many directions and people slipping in pools of blood as they sought cover. Some claimed the gunfire emanated from either helicopters or sniper nests.

Army units fired anti-aircraft weapons, fitted on top of armored personnel carriers, above the protesters, in apparent warning shots and attempts to drive them back from security cordons about 200 yards from the square.

Then the soldiers turned firearms on the crowd, one marcher said.

“People started running in all directions and bullets were flying,” said Ali al-Haji, a 27-year-old bank clerk. “I saw people getting shot in the legs, chest, and one man was bleeding from his head.”

“My eyes were full of tear gas, there was shooting, and there was a lot of panic,” said Mohammed Abdullah, a 37-year-old businessman taking part in the protest.

People carrying men, women and children - some bleeding from bullet wounds, others overcome by tear gas - crowded into Salmaniya Medical Center.

Thousands of demonstrators then converged on the hospital. That prompted security forces to surround it until some police officers began taking off their uniforms and joining the protesters, to an outpouring of cheers.

Hospital staff members ushered journalists in and took them from one wounded person to another: a baby burned by tear gas, a hysterical 14-year-old boy and a teen convulsing from tear gas among them.

“Write this in your newspapers,” they yelled, as an ambulance driver held up an X-ray of a man who’d been shot in the head, the shattered bullet taking nearly a quarter of the frame. “Take a picture of this.”

The clash came hours after funeral mourners and worshippers at Friday prayers called for the toppling of the Western-allied monarchy in the tiny island nation that is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, the centerpiece of the Pentagon’s efforts to confront Iranian military influence. Some members of Bahrain’s Sunni ruling system worry that Shiite powerhouse Iran could use Bahrain’s majority Shiites as a further foothold in the region.

“I am deeply concerned about reports of violence in Bahrain, Libya and Yemen. The United States condemns the use of violence by governments against peaceful protesters in those countries and wherever else it may occur,” Obama said. “The United States urges the governments of Bahrain, Libya and Yemen to show restraint in responding to peaceful protests and to respect the rightsof their people.”

Britain focused its sharpest criticism on Bahrain, revoking licenses that allowed the kingdom to buy tear-gas canisters, crowd-control ammunition and other equipment.

Bahrain’s king appointed Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa to lead a dialogue “with all parties.” Speaking on Bahrain state TV, Salman expressed condolences for “these painful days” and called for unity.

“We are at a crossroads,” Salman said. “Youths are going out on the street believing that they have no future in the country, while others are going out to express their loveand loyalty. But this country is for you all, for the Shiites and Sunnis.”

The cries against the king and his inner circle - at a main Shiite mosque and at burials for those killed in Thursday’s attack - reflect an escalation of the political uprising, which began with calls to weaken the Sunni monarchy’s power and address claims of discrimination against the Shiite majority.

The mood, however, has turned toward defiance of the entire ruling system after the brutal crackdown in Pearl Square, which put the nation under emergency-style footing with military forces in key areas and checkpoints on main roads.

“The regime has broken something inside of me. ... All of these people gathered today have had something broken in them,” said Ahmed Makki Abu Taki at the funeral for his 23-year-old brother, Mahmoud, who was killed in the pre-dawn sweep. “We used to demand for the prime minister to step down, but now our demand is for the ruling family to get out.”

Outside a Shiite village mosque, several thousand mourners buried three of the men killed in the crackdown.

“Our demands were peaceful and simple at first. We wanted the prime minister to step down,” Mohamed Ali, a 40-year-old civil servant, said as he choked back tears. “Now the demands are harsher and have reached the pinnacle of the pyramid. We want the whole government to fall.”

In Libya, a doctor at al-Jalaa hospital in the eastern city of Benghazi said he saw the bodies of 35 people killed during protests demanding the ouster of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi. He said witnesses and survivors told him most of the victims came from an attempted protest outside a residential compound used by Gadhafi, with security forces firing on protesters demonstrating outside. The doctor spoke on condition his name not be used for fear of retaliation. More than a dozen protesters were shot to death Thursday in Libya.

Protests in Yemen saw anti-government demonstrators clash with police and supporters of longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a key U.S. ally in fighting al-Qaida. Riot police fired tear gas and bullets to disperse crowds in the capital, Sana, and the port of Aden, where four people were killed. Someone threw what appeared to be a hand grenade into a crowd in the southern city of Taiz, wounding 48 people, witnesses said.

In Jordan, clashes broke out Friday between government supporters and opponents at a protest calling for more freedom and lower food prices, injuring eight people in the first reported violence in weeks of demonstrations in the kingdom.

The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, said the response of some governments in the Middle East and Africa to the demands of their people was “illegal and excessively heavy-handed,” and she condemned the use of military grade shotguns by Bahrain security forces. The European Union and Human Rights Watch urged Bahrain to order security forces to stop attacks on peaceful protesters.

Information for this article was contributed by Hadeel Al-Shalchi, Barbara Surk, Brian Murphy, Dale Gavlak and Jamal Halaby of The Associated Press; by Nancy A. Youssef and Jonathan S. Landay of McClatchy Newspapers and by Janine Zacharia, Scott Wilson, Greg Jaffe, Julie Tate, Anthony Faiola and Sudarsan Raghavan of The Washington Post.