Unrest Spreads as Bahrain Cracks Down on Protesters
REUTERS: Bahrain police stormed a Manama square on Thursday to clear activists camped out there as anti-government protests in the Middle East and North Africa, inspired by revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, gathered pace.

Clashes were reported in tightly controlled oil producer Libya, sandwiched between Egypt and Tunisia, as people there prepared to take to the streets for a "day of rage" after new protests erupted in Yemen, Iran and Iraq.

The demonstrations against old rulers came after U.S. President Barack Obama commenting on the overthrow of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, said: "The world is changing ... If you are governing these countries, you've got to get ahead of the change, you can't be behind the curve.

Authoritarian governments have reason to fear contagion with young people able to watch pro-democracy uprisings on satellite television or the Internet and to communicate on social networks hard for secret police to control.

In Bahrain, police firing tear gas and rubber bullets cleared hundreds of people from the central Pearl Square in the early hours as they tried to end three days of protests. >>> Cynthia Johnston, Manama | Thursday, February 17, 2011

Police Teargas Bahrain Protesters
Feb 17 - Deaths as Bahrain police teargas protest camp in a central Manama square. Marie-Claire Fennessy reports


Bahrain: Riot Police Fire on Protest Camp
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Riot police have stormed a protest camp in Bahrain's capital, killing at least three people, as the government tried to quell three days of protest.


Hundreds of security forces used batons, rubber bullets and tear gas on demonstrators who had been camped out in Pearl Square calling for political reform.

In the clashes that followed, an estimated 100 people were injured.
After the police had cleared the square in the capital Manama, 50 tanks were deployed to patrol the city's streets in a show of force by the authorities.

"Police are coming, they are shooting teargas at us," one protestor said amid the chaos. Another said: "I am wounded, I am bleeding. They are killing us."

Demonstrators had gathered in Pearl Square in the hope of emulating the protest in Cairo that led to the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. >>> | Thursday, February 17, 2011