Bahrain clamps down after protest

Mourners massed at the hospital but were afraid to carry the dead out on a traditional funeral march as the government announced that people should stay off the streets of central Manama, the capital city, and warned ominously that the army would take all steps necessary to guard stability.

The crowds grew angrier over the day in disbelief over the assault against them and thrust their fists in the air in anti-government cheers.

In anger over the violence, the country's main Shiite Muslim opposition party announced its 18 members were leaving the parliament, casting doubt on the function of the 40-seat body. Bahrain is governed by Sunni Muslims, and the grievances of the country's Shiite majority are driving the current protests.

The violence presents a diplomatic challenge to the United States, which relies heavily on Bahrain for defense assistance even as it presses for democratic change in the region. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa on Thursday to express "deep concern about recent events" and to urge restraint, a State Department official.

The killings stunned the tiny but strategic Persian Gulf island nation of 800,000 people, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. The demonstrators had massed in the capital's Pearl Square to call for constitutional reforms and had planned a major protest today. But before dawn Thursday, the government sent police out to crush the protest.

A barrage of tear gas canisters thundered across the square about 3 a.m. as dozens of police cars, armored security vehicles and ambulances converged on a makeshift tent city in the square. The area had begun to resemble a smaller version of Tahrir Square in Cairo, where Egyptian protesters this month overthrew their president.

After a peaceful, festive evening, most of the protesters in Pearl Square were asleep when the attack began, witnesses said, noting that no steps had been taken to guard the area against the security forces, even though two people had been killed in clashes with them earlier in the week.

After the raid, hundreds of wailing relatives packed the halls and lobby of Salmaniya Medical Complex, creating pandemonium as they frantically searched for loved ones.

As a stream of ambulances continued to roll up and unload the wounded onto a river of gurneys, an angry crowd began to throw fists into the air and chant, "Enough! Enough!" As the stream of injured continued unabated, the enraged crowd began yelling anti-government slogans.

This article appeared on page A - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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