AT LEAST FOUR DEAD, SIXTY MISSING, HUNDREDS INJURED IN BAHRAIN DEMONSTRATIONS

The Tunisian spark is bursting into full flame in the small Kingdom of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. The population of Bahrain is 750,000, so the sheer numbers reached in Egypt are out of the question. Once again it is the well-educated, under employed young of all financial classes participating in these demonstrations, demonstrations that are becoming ugly and definitely fatal for many.
 
Press TV
February 17, 2011

A wounded Shia Bahraini demonstrator 

is looked after at a hospital in Manama 

after being assaulted by security forces on February 17, 2011.

At least four protesters have been killed and about 60 gone missing after Bahraini security forces storm a protest camp in capital Manama.

The head of Bahrain's main Shia opposition bloc has described the riot police attack on the pro-democracy protesters camping out in central Manama as “real terrorism.”

“Whoever took the decision to attack the protest was aiming to kill,” said Abdul Jalil Khalil, a parliamentarian with the Wefaq bloc.

“This is real terrorism,” Reuters quoted him as saying on Thursday.

 Clashes in Pearl Square in central Manama, Bahrain

Bahraini police broke up a protest camp in Pearl Square in downtown Manama on Thursday and fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the protesters, a Press TV correspondent quoted an unnamed opposition lawmaker as saying.

Bahraini protesters have renamed the square as Tahrir Square, after a square with a similar name in Egypt, which became the center of pro-democracy protests.

At least 2,000 pro-democracy protesters have been occupying the Pearl Square in central Manama since Wednesday, after days of clashes that resulted in two deaths and an apology from Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

Four people were killed during the clashes, bringing to seven the total number of those killed since the protests began on Monday when, on Thursday, the Bahraini riot police tried to disperse the crowd by firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the people. Dozens more were injured in the attack.

Witnesses say the nearby roads have almost been cleared of civilian traffic. On Wednesday, Bahraini authorities said that they would seek to restore calm in the streets on Thursday, after days of protests inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and intensified by the deaths of protesters.

Armored vehicles could be seen rumbling through the capital as the government tries to quell the protests inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. 

Riot police clashing with Bahraini pro-democracy protesters in Manama, on February 14.

Bahrain's army has said it will take all necessary measures to ensure security and called on people to avoid going to central areas of Manama.

The magnitude of the pro-democracy protests in Bahrain is unprecedented in the history of the Persian Gulf kingdom and the authorities' efforts to quell them have so far been ineffective.

The demonstrators are demanding a new constitution that would move the country toward democracy and limit the king's powers.

Bahrain is ruled by a royal family, who are blamed for discrimination against the country's Shia population ~ comprising 70 percent of the population. 

An extremely flattering painting of Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa 

whom the people want ousted from power.

Protesters have also called on the Bahraini king to fire his uncle, Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, who has been the country's prime minister since 1971.

The US Navy's Fifth Fleet is based in the kingdom of Bahrain.