Bahrain’s king declares state of emergency

BAHRAIN’S king has declared a three-month state of emergency and gave the country’s military chief wide authority to battle a Shi’ite-led protest movement that has threatened the Sunni monarchy and drawn in forces from around the Gulf.

The martial law-style order was read out on Bahrain state TV a day after more than 1,000 Saudi-led troops arrived to help prop up the US-backed regime in the first major cross-border military action to challenge one of the revolts sweeping across the Arab world.

Clashes broke out across the tiny island nation, with a doctor reporting that hundreds of protesters were injured by shotgun blasts and clubs and that one died from a bullet to the head. One of the Saudi soldiers was also shot and killed by a protester, said a security official in Saudi Arabia.

Further underlining the regional implications of the unrest in Bahrain, Shi’ite power Iran denounced the intervention of foreign troops as “unacceptable” and predicted it would complicate the kingdom’s political crisis.

Iran holds no deep political ties to Bahrain’s Shi’ite groups, but some Iranian hardliners have hailed their efforts over the years for greater rights for their community, which represents a majority of the nation’s population.

In the month of protests, the Shi’ite-led opposition is also pressing for political freedoms.

The US bases its navy’s 5th fleet in the country in part to try to counter Iran’s military reach.

Other Gulf leaders have urged Bahrain’s king not to give ground, fearing gains by Bahrain’s Shi’ite Muslims could offer a window for Iran to expand its influence on the Arab side of the Gulf. There are also worries that concessions could embolden more protests against their own regimes, which have already confronted pro-reform cries in Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Yesterday’s worst confrontations took place on the Bahraini island of Sitra.

A 24-year-old protester, Ahmed Farhan, was shot in the head and killed, said Dr Ibrahim Youssef, a member of the medical team at the Sitra Health Centre. Youssef said hundreds of others were injured by shotgun blasts and clubs.

“Hundreds of people are here. They are everywhere — in the halls, on the floor of the health centre,” he said. “People are screaming. There is lots of blood.”

There was a growing conviction among the protesters, centred in the tent camp in the capital’s Pearl Square, that the monarchy is unwilling to meet their demands for an elected government and a voice for Shi’ites in running the nation.

“They brought tanks from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to keep the monarchy as it is, not to change it,” said Ali Issa, a protester manning a checkpoint on a road leading to the square. “We are expecting they will attack us any minute now.”

At the square, thousands of protesters were still in shock over the arrival of the neighbouring armies when the state of emergency was declared.