Bahrain in crackdown as unrest spreads

UNREST spread across the Middle East and North Africa yesterday as Bahrain launched a swift military crackdown on anti-government protesters and clashes were reported in Libya and Yemen.

Troops in armoured vehicles took control of the Bahraini capital after police firing buckshot and teargas drove out protesters hoping to emulate demonstrators who toppled veteran leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.

It was the worst violence in the Gulf island kingdom in decades and a sign of the nervousness felt by Bahrain’s Saudi-allied Sunni al-Khalifa royal family, long aware of simmering discontent among the country’s majority Shi’ites.