Manama, March 16: Five top Bahraini Shia clerics have urged the international community to intervene as the violence escalates further following the deployment of foreign troops in the Persian Gulf state.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Sheikh Issa Qassem, Seyyed Abdullah al-Ghoraifi, Sheikh Abdul Hussain al-Setri and Sheikh Mohammad Saleh al-Rabiei warned that a “horrible massacre” is expected at Manama’s Pearl Square, where people are only peacefully demanding their rights, IRIB reported.
The report comes as six people died and more than 1,000 others were injured on Tuesday in clashes between anti-regime protesters and Bahrain’s security forces.
On Wednesday morning, the Bahraini police, who arrived in tanks and armored vehicles, launched an assault on a group of protesters who had camped out the night before in Manama’s Pearl Square.
The forces, who were backed by army helicopters, managed to take over the square only moments later.
A group of armed men had earlier set fire to the protesters’ tents. Electricity and mobile phone services have been reportedly cut off in large parts of Manama as the political situation in Bahrain escalates further.
The attacks come two days after Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Qatar dispatched their armed forces to crisis-hit Bahrain to quash anti-government protests in the tiny Persian Gulf state.
The move has concerned UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who has called for a meaningful and broad-based national dialogue.
The UN chief also urged Bahrain’s regional neighbors and the international community to support a dialogue process and an environment conducive for credible reform in Bahrain.
Bahraini opposition groups, including the main bloc, al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, denounced the move as an invasion of the kingdom.
The United States, which has its Fifth Fleet based there, has declined to call the troops’ move into Bahrain an invasion.
Bahraini demonstrators maintain that they will hold their ground until their demands for freedom, constitutional monarchy, and a say in the government are met.
——–Agencies