Affrontements à Riffa – 11 mars 2011

Hundreds injured during clashes between rival groups in Bahrain

CNN

March 12, 2011

Hundreds of people were injured in Bahrain Friday, when rival groups clashed over an attempted march in the town of Riffa, a residential area where the ruling Al-Khalifa family lives.

The national health ministry said 774 people were injured and 107 were hospitalized in the wake of the fighting.

Anti-government demonstrators in Riffa had planned a march. A crowd numbering roughly 8,000 set off on the march, according to Bahrain’s ambassador to the United States.

But they were met by hundreds of people carrying swords, hatchets, metal pieces, cricket instruments and pieces of wood with nails hammered into them. The opposing group had already taken up positions in an effort to stop the planned march.

Bahrain’s ambassador to the United States took the unusual step of commenting on the clashes in Riffa, which he called a « sectarian conflict » between Shia and Sunni Muslim factions. Law enforcement officers had erected barbed wire fences in an attempt to ward off any fighting, Houda Ezra Nonoo said in a statement.

The conflict began when small groups from opposing sides met at the security fence, he said.

Accounts that claimed live ammunition was used by government forces were « rumors, » Nonoo added. He also denied allegations that people inhaled tear gas to the point of suffocation.

Only eight tear gas canisters were used to disperse the crowd, according to Nonoo’s statement. Video footage would support his version of the operation, he said..

The attempted march in Riffa was organized by some of the more hard-line Shia groups among the government opposition. However, there are also moderate Shia groups and Sunni groups in the anti-government coalition. Read more…

Police, Protesters Clash Near The Bahrain PalaceTop Cleric Warns On Sectarian Strife

arabtimesonline.com

MANAMA, Bahrain, March 11, (Agencies): Security forces reinforced by pro-government mobs fired rubber bullets and tear gas Friday to scatter protesters near Bahrain’s royal palace, as a conflict deepened between Sunni Muslims backing the ruling system and Shiites demanding it give up its monopoly on power.

The clashes broke out after an hours-long standoff between tens of thousands of demonstrators facing down lines of riot police and Sunni vigilantes carrying swords, clubs, metals pipes and stones. One protester, Habib Ibreeq, said people used private cars to ferry the injured to hospitals.

The latest clash reinforces the sense that nearly a month of protests led by the Shiite majority to demand sweeping political reforms was veering toward sectarian street battles between the divided communities. Shiites, who complain of discrimination, are also increasingly calling for the ouster of the Western-allied Sunni monarchy ruling the small but strategic island nation that is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

The full number of injured was not immediately clear, but witnesses said it included dozens of people overcome by tear gas and others hit by stones or cut by blades.

Some main opposition parties had called for the march to be canceled, fearing Bahrain was moving dangerously close to full-scale sectarian battles after weeks of protests modeled on the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. On Thursday, students clashed at a school and Sunni groups burned a Shiite-owned supermarket and threatened other businesses.

But Shiite youth groups ignored the appeals to call off the protest near the offices and compounds of Bahrain’s king and other members of the ruling dynasty that has held power for more than two centuries.

The brief — but intense — melee began as protesters began to withdraw from a razor wire barrier separating the two sides. Witnesses said some stones were thrown from the pro-government mobs and they began to pour through an opening in the blockade.

Within moments, police had fired tear gas and rubber bullets to drive back the demonstrators, who included children.

A statement earlier by Bahrain’s Interior Ministry warned against holding the march amid a “level of sectarian tension that threatens Bahrain’s social fabric.”

Hours before the clash, pro-government bands attacked several cars trying to reach the area near the royal compounds. Read more…