UN warning

THE UN has warned of “shocking and illegal” abuses in Bahrain where the US-backed Sunni Muslim rulers are waging a bloody crackdown on Shi’ite-led protesters.

The violence in the strategic Gulf kingdom has alarmed the US and sparked furious condemnation from Iran, Shi’ite leaders in Iraq and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

Dissidents were rounded up at gunpoint in midnight raids and armed police stood outside Manama’s main hospital, amid reports authorities were beating doctors and denying treatment to the wounded.

Fresh clashes erupted in at least one Shi’ite village outside the capital, a day after five people were killed when security forces crushed a month-old pro-democracy sit-in at the capital’s Pearl Square.

UN rights chief Navi Pillay said any takeover by the security forces of hospitals and medical facilities was a “blatant violation of international law”.

Bahrain’s military confirmed it had arrested people for crimes including sedition, murder and having contact with foreign states.