MSNBC is reporting that at least four people were killed Thursday after riot police used buckshot, tear gas and clubs to drive protesters from a main square in Bahrain's capital Manama, where they had been demanding political change in the tiny kingdom. The protesters had been in Pearl Square since Monday in an attempt to emulate the successful protest camp on Cairo's Tahrir Square.The Interior Ministry declared the protest camp "illegal" and warned Bahrainis to stay off the streets.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who is in Bahrain, said that more than 600 people had been treated for their injuries and an opposition lawmaker, Ibrahim Mattar, told Reuters that 60 people were missing. The Associated Press and Reuters report, "They are killing us!" one man said as police firing teargas and buckshot moved in at around 3 a.m. local time Thursday (7 p.m. Wednesday ET), dispersing some 2,000 people, including women and children. "This is real terrorism," said Abdul Jalil Khalil, of Bahrain's main Shiite opposition party Wefaq. "Whoever took the decision to attack the protest was aiming to kill."
As the pro-democracy movement spreads, those in power are clamping down on protesters to avoid the same fate as Egypt and Mubarak. Will it work?
Read more at MSNBC.
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