Post date: Aug 14, 2013 8:42:25 PM
Bahraini police fire tear gas and birdshot at demonstrators, according to witnesses, as protests called for by activists to press demands for democratic change turn violent.
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KARANA, BAHRAIN (AUGUST 14, 2013) (REUTERS) - Bahraini police fired tear gas and birdshot at demonstrators on Wednesday (August 14), witnesses said, as protests called for by activists to press demands for democratic change in the U.S.-allied Gulf kingdom turned violent.
Activists have stepped up a two-and-a-half-year-old campaign to push the Sunni Muslim ruling family into allowing more democracy in the Shi'ite-majority state of 1.25 million people. Bahrain is an important U.S. regional ally against Shi'ite Iran.Opposition figures had called in social media for mass rallies on Wednesday inBahrain, prompting the authorities to tighten security and warn of tough measures and leading the United States to temporarily close its embassy.
There were no reports of serious injury in the clashes that erupted after sunset in a number of Shi'ite villages around the capital Manama.
In Shakhoora, a village west of the capital Manama, a standoff deteriorated into a clash between police on one side of a barbed wire fence they erected overnight and about 300 demonstrators chanting anti-government slogans on the other.
A Reuters witness said police charged the crowd, firing birdshot and tear gas. They said some people were overcome by tear gas but there were no reports of serious injury.
Witnesses said similar clashes occurred in other Shi'ite villages, including Karana where demonstrators responded by throwing firebombs at police, without causing casualties.
Earlier, a protest of some 100 people ended peacefully in the village of Saar west of Manama without police intervention.
The main opposition Al Wefaq Society said on its website that around 60 protest rallies were held in 40 locations on Wednesday. Reuters was not able to confirm that figure.
The concerted new thrust for a "free and democratic Bahrain" through popular protest is being driven by "Tamarrod" (Rebellion), a loose association of opposition activists who coalesced in early July.
Tamarrod is named after the Egyptian movement that helped muster massive protests against President Mohamed Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood before the military removed the country's first freely-elected leader on July 3.
However, while the Egyptian protesters were backed by the military, Bahrain's security forces remain loyal to a government that pledged on Monday to "forcefully confront" demonstrators and prosecute those responsible for "incitement".
Bahrain, a tiny island state that hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet as a bulwark for U.S.-aligned Gulf monarchies against Iran, has suffered bouts of unrest since February 2011 when a Shi'ite-led uprising demanded the al-Khalifa dynasty give up power.
The authorities crushed the revolt, one of a series of Arab Spring upheavals, but protests and clashes have persisted despite talks between government and opposition.
That has planted Bahrain on the front line of a tussle for regional influence between Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia.
At least 232 Egyptians were killed on Wednesday after security forces moved in on protesters seeking the reinstatement of Mursi, and the government imposed a state of emergency as unrest spread across the most populous Arab nation.