Saturday, February 19, 2011

The revolution in Egypt continued to send tremors through the region Friday as protests erupted in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq, Syria and Djibouti, and authorities violently cracked down on the largely peaceful demonstrations.
In Libya, thousands of people protested in Benghazi over a security crackdown which failed to halt the worst unrest of Moammar Gadhafi’s four decades in power.

Human rights group Amnesty International said Friday it believed Libyan security forces had shot dead at least 46 people in the past three days. 
Opposition activists said protesters were fighting troops for control of the nearby city of Al-Bayda.
Soldiers were deployed in the streets of the country’s second city Benghazi after thousands of people demonstrated overnight Thursday.

Two Swiss-based exile groups said anti-government forces joined by defecting police had seized control of the city of Al-Bayda, 200 kilometers northeast of Benghazi and site of deadly clashes in recent days.
“Al-Bayda is in the hands of the people,” Giumma al-Omami of the Libyan Human Rights Solidarity group said in Geneva.
Fathi al-Warfali of the Libyan Committee for Truth and Justice said: “The city is out of the control of the Gaddafi regime.”

Later, both groups, citing contacts in the city, said government militias were attempting to retake Al-Bayda, with residents fighting back with any weapons they could find.
The reports could not be independently verified.
There were no reliable reports of major protests elsewhere, and state media said there had been pro-Gadhafi rallies in the capital.

The Libyan leader appeared in the early hours of Friday briefly at Green Square in the center of Tripoli, surrounded by crowds of supporters shouting “He is our leader!” and “We follow your path! Gadhafi did not speak.
Quryna newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying the General Peoples Congress, or Parliament, would adopt a “major shift” in government policy including appointing new people to senior positions. It gave no details and the sources could not be clarified.

A sermon at Friday prayers in Tripoli, broadcast on state television, urged people to ignore reports in foreign media “which doesn’t want our country to be peaceful, which ... is the aim of Zionism and imperialism, to divide our country.”
In Bahrain, troops shot at protesters near Pearl Square in the capital Friday and wounded many, a former Shiite lawmaker said, a day after police forcibly cleared a protest camp from the traffic circle in Manama, killing four people and wounding more than 230.

Jalal Firooz, of the Wefaq bloc that resigned from Parliament Thursday, said demonstrators, marking the death of a protester killed earlier this week, had made for Pearl Square, where army troops opened fire.
“There are many casualties, some are critical,” he said. Police had no immediate comment.
Thousands of Bahraini Shiites turned out Friday to bury those killed in Pearl Square. Bahrain’s most revered Shiite cleric, Sheikh Issa Qassem, described the police attack as a “massacre” and said the government had shut the door to dialogue, but stopped short of calling openly for street protests.

The violence was the worst in the Saudi-allied Persian Gulf island kingdom in decades and a sign of the nervousness of the Sunni royal family, long aware of simmering discontent among the majority Shiites.
Thousands gathered at a mosque in the village of Sitra, south of Manama, for Friday prayers and the funerals of three of those killed. “The people want the fall of the regime,” they cried. “Justice, freedom and constitutional monarchy.”

In a loyalist demonstration in Manama, hundreds of pro-government supporters, waving flags and pictures of the king, streamed through the streets, local TV footage showed. The army in Bahrain had issued a warning to people to stay away from the center of the capital.
Yemen also resorted to lethal force in the face of mounting protests, bringing the death toll to 10 since the unrest erupted Sunday.

At least two people were killed Friday when security forces and pro-government loyalists clashed with crowds demanding an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 32-year rule in the capital and in other cities in the south.
Anti-regime protests broke out in the volatile city of Taez and in the southern city of Aden killed four, witnesses said. In the capital Sanaa, four anti-regime demonstrators were injured, according to witnesses and journalists, who were also beaten.

In Jordan, clashes erupted Friday in the capital between government supporters and opponents at a protest calling for more freedoms and lower food prices, injuring eight. It was the seventh straight Friday that Jordanians took to the streets to demand more say in decision-making.

The Amman protest drew around 2,000 people, including hard-line leftists, Muslim conservatives and students calling for reduced powers for the king and the chance to elect members of the Cabinet. Students from the growing Jaayin or “I’m Coming” movement chanted “we want constitutional reforms; we want a complete change to policies.”

About 200 government supporters trailed the protesters, chanting: “Our blood and souls, we sacrifice for you Abu Hussein,” a reference to Jordan’s King Abdullah II, before clashing with the opposition march.
“They beat us with batons, pipes and hurled rocks at us,” said Tareq Kmeil, a student at the protest.
“We tried to defend ourself, to beat them back.” He said at least eight people were injured. He said the injuries included fractures in the head, arms and legs. “Police didn’t do anything to protect us,” he said. “Police forces just stood on the side watching us getting beaten.”

In Syria, hundreds of Syrians staged a protest against security forces after traffic police beat up a young man in the capital’s Old City, an opposition website reported Friday.
The Dubai-based all4Syria.info said Imad Nasab, son of a shop owner in the cobbled commercial strip of Hariqa, was assaulted by traffic police officers, sparking a spontaneous rally Thursday in solidarity with the victim. “The Syrian people will not be humiliated,” chanted the crowd.

“Police, thieves” and “We will sacrifice our soul and blood for you [President] Bashar [Assad]” were some of the slogans used by the demonstrators.
The website said they blocked traffic for three hours and called on the interior minister, who showed up at the scene, to arrest the policemen involved.

In Djibouti, police firing tear gas clashed Friday with demonstrators who turned out in their thousands in an unprecedented protest to demand the departure of President Ismael Omar Guelleh, an AFP reporter said. The protest by opposition supporters had started peacefully at around 2:00 p.m. but the demonstrators then decided to set up camp outside a stadium, vowing to remain there until their demand is met.

In Iraq, a Kurdish regional opposition’s offices were targeted by looters, officials said Friday, after the country’s most violent protests left three peopole dead in two days. In the southern port city of Basra, hundreds of demonstrators blocked a bridge for an hour, calling for an improvement in basic services such as water and electricity provision, and a lowering of unemployment. – Agencies