You're reading: Bahrain arrests 6 opposition leaders after crackdown

MANAMA - Bahrain arrested at least six hardline opposition leaders on Thursday, a day after its crackdown on protests by the Shi'ite Muslim majority drew rare U.S. criticism and raised fears of a regional conflict.

Calm returned to the streets of the Gulf Arab island after Bahaini forces used tanks and helicopters to drive protesters off the streets and clear a camp that had become a symbol of their demand for more rights and powers on the Sunni-ruled island.

Three police and three protesters died in the crackdown.

Among those detained overnight were Haq leader Hassan Mushaima and Wafa leader Abdel Wahhab Hussein, who had led calls for the overthrow of the royal family, the largest opposition party Wefaq said.

More moderate Wefaq had limited its demands to wide-ranging political and constitutional reform. Also arrested was Ibrahim Sharif, head of the secular leftist party Waad.

"Two of the thugs climbed over the fence to get in our yard, one went over and pointed a gun in Ibrahim’s face and the other went to our garage to let everyone else in," Farida Ismail, Sharif’s wife, told Reuters by telephone.

"They were going around, wrecking things in the house."

The interior ministry could not immediately be reached for comment and the charges against those arrested were not known.

The unrest has brought an influx of troops to Bahrain from Sunni-ruled neighbours Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, which fear the uprising that began last month could play into the hands of non-Arab Shi’ite power Iran.

It also has prompted sympathy protests from Shi’ites across the region, including in Saudi Arabia’s oil-producing east.

Earlier this week, Washington said it understood why Bahrain’s Sunni rulers had called in reinforcements. But on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said force was not the answer.

"We find what’s happening in Bahrain alarming. We think that there is no security answer to the aspirations and demands of the demonstrators," she told CBS. "They are on the wrong track."

LIVE BULLETS, PETROL BOMBS

A medical source said dozens of people were taken to Bahrain International Hospital on Wednesday, hit by rubber bullets or shotgun pellets or suffering teargas inhalation — all weapons used by riot police. One was hit by a live bullet.

Protesters threw rocks and petrol bombs at police who were clearing the protest camp and killed three by running them over with their cars at high speed, witnesses and medical sources said.

U.S. President Barack Obama called the kings of Saudi Arabia, a strategic ally of Washington in the Middle East, and of Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and seen as a bulwark against Iranian influence, to urge "maximum" restraint.

Political analysts say the Obama administration, which backed pro-democracy protests in Egypt, faced a new dilemma as violence in Bahrain appeared to dash hopes for political talks.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jeff Feltman went to Bahrain on Monday to push for talks to resolve the crisis. The U.S. State Department said on Wednesday he had already left.

Over 60 percent of Bahrainis are Shi’ites. Most say they want only the same treatment as Sunnis and a constitutional monarchy but calls by hardliners for the overthrow of the monarchy have alarmed Sunnis, who fear the unrest serves Iran.

Analysts say the intervention of Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states in Bahrain might provoke a response from Tehran, which supports Shi’ite groups in Iraq and Lebanon.

"This was a major and a dangerous decision because this issue has been internationalised now. There are protests in Iraq, in Iran, in Lebanon," Wefaq MP Jasim Hussein said.

"There was no reason when our demands were local demands and nothing to do with Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates."

Iran condemned Bahrain’s response to the protests, the worst unrest there since the 1990s, and recalled its ambassador for consultations, Iranian state TV reported.

"What has happened is bad, unjustifiable and irreparable," it quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying.

On Tuesday Bahrain withdrew its ambassador for consultations to protest against Tehran’s criticisms.

"INTERNATIONALISED"

The crackdown in Bahrain has galvanised Iraq’s Shi’ite community, exacerbating sectarian tension that led to years of war in Iraq. Iraq’s Shi’ite prime minister criticised the assault and Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for protests.

In Lebanon, supporters of Shi’ite group Hezbollah also came out in solidarity with their fellow Shia.

Saudi Shi’ites held several demonstrations, including one in their main regional centre, Qatif, on Wednesday, demanding the release of prisoners and voicing support for Shi’ites in Bahrain, an activist and witnesses said.

"People were demanding the withdrawal of the Peninsula force and called on Saudi Arabia to withdraw from Bahrain," one witness said, referring to Gulf Arab forces in Bahrain.

A protest called by Bahrain’s youth movement, which played a leading role in the protest camp at Pearl roundabout, failed to materialise after the military banned all gatherings and imposed a curfew from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. across a large swathe of Manama.

A Reuters witness saw Bahraini tanks move in the direction of Budaya Street, where the protest was set to take place.

On Thursday morning, police and workers were clearing debris that protesters had used to cut off Bahrain’s main thoroughfare that leads to the country’s financial district and is lined with the four largest malls.

Military could not be seen on the road to the airport but police checkpoints waved traffic through