*#bahrain <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23bahrain&src=hash> security forces running after families sit in on the roads of #sanad<https://twitter.com/search?q=%23sanad&src=hash>village now @sanadnews <https://twitter.com/sanadnews> #Aug14<https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Aug14&src=hash> pic.twitter.com/8FuOg623HX <http://t.co/8FuOg623HX>* * * UPDATE: Police fire teargas, birdshot at Bahrain demonstrators Reuters, Wednesday 14 Aug 2013 Despite being forewarned of a security clampdown, 60 protest rallies were held in 40 locations over Bahrain, according to opposition group
Bahraini police fired tear gas and birdshot at demonstrators on Wednesday, witnesses said, as protests called for by activists to press demands for democratic change in the U.S.-allied Gulf kingdom turned violent. Activists have stepped up a two-and-a-half-year-old campaign to push the Sunni Muslim ruling family into allowing more democracy in the Shia-majority state of 1.25 million people. Bahrain is an important U.S. regional ally against Shia Iran. Opposition figures had called in social media for mass rallies on Wednesday in Bahrain, prompting the authorities to tighten security and warn of tough measures and leading the United States to temporarily close its embassy. There were no reports of serious injury in the clashes that erupted after sunset in a number of Shia villages around the capital Manama. In Shakhoora, a village west of the capital Manama, a standoff deteriorated into a clash between police on one side of a barbed wire fence they erected overnight and about 300 demonstrators chanting anti-government slogans on the other. A Reuters witness said police charged the crowd, firing birdshot and tear gas. They said some people were overcome by tear gas but there were no reports of serious injury. Witnesses said similar clashes occurred in other Shia villages, including Karana where demonstrators responded by throwing firebombs at police, without causing casualties. Earlier, a protest of some 100 people ended peacefully in the village of Saar west of Manama without police intervention. The main opposition Al Wefaq Society said on its website that around 60 protest rallies were held in 40 locations on Wednesday. Reuters was not able to confirm that figure. Security forces converged on the Manama district of al-Seef after activists used Twitter to encourage demonstrators to gather there, in defiance of a blanket ban on protests in the capital, although no incidents were reported. The concerted new thrust for a "free and democratic Bahrain" through popular protest is being driven by "Tamarrod" (Rebellion), a loose association of opposition activists who coalesced in early July. Tamarrod is named after the Egyptian movement that helped muster massive protests against President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood before the military removed the country's first freely-elected leader on 3 July. However, while the Egyptian protesters were backed by the military, Bahrain's security forces remain loyal to a government that pledged on Monday to "forcefully confront" demonstrators and prosecute those responsible for "incitement". The Interior Ministry reported that an Asian worker was injured by a firebomb as he tried to open a road blocked by protesters in a village south of Manama, and said burning tyres had been used to bar a main road in Muharraq to the northeast. LEGAL CLAMPDOWN It described the acts as "terrorism", for which new laws passed this month allow tougher penalties including longer prison terms and the stripping of Bahraini nationality. In some villages, all shops were closed on Wednesday. In Manama, businesses were open but there was a bigger police presence than usual. In the Bab al-Bahrain commercial district, police in riot gear sat in a parked bus. Security forces were also monitoring traffic on roads leading into the capital, occasionally stopping vehicles to check identity papers. The Bahrain opposition complains of discrimination against majority Shias in areas such as employment and public services, and is demanding a constitutional monarchy with a government chosen from within a democratically-elected parliament. The government denies any discrimination. Bahrain, a tiny island state that hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet as a bulwark for U.S.-aligned Gulf monarchies against Iran, has suffered bouts of unrest since February 2011 when a Shia-led uprising demanded the al-Khalifa dynasty give up power. The authorities crushed the revolt, one of a series of Arab Spring upheavals, but protests and clashes have persisted despite talks between government and opposition. That has planted Bahrain on the front line of a tussle for regional influence between Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia. Wefaq's leader told Reuters on Tuesday that it was not planning to join the protests officially but supported the right to peaceful demonstrations. "I know that it is going to be a peaceful movement but, having said that, I also expect clashes between the government forces and the protesters, because they are against all protests and demonstrations," Sheikh Ali Salman said. At least 95 Egyptians were killed on Wednesday after security forces moved in on protesters seeking the reinstatement of Morsi, and the government imposed a state of emergency as unrest spread across the most populous Arab nation. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/79049.aspx ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * * * Egypt state of emergency will no doubt be used against striking workers - down with the feloul, down with SCAF, down with Morsi* * * *Egypt: who was in power for 1 year and kept MOI and Army intact because he was in an alliance with SCAF? Morsi * * * *MOI and Army attack pro-Morsi sit in, dozens reported dead - Morsi supporters attack coptic churches - workers need an independent voice* *Egypt #RevSoc <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23RevSoc&src=hash> down with military rule, no return of feloul, no return of Morsi - all power and wealth to the ppl http://revsoc.me/statement/ysqt -hkm-lskr-ysqt-lsysy-qyd-lthwr-lmdd <http://t.co/GjImZfQgtJ> * * * * http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art/34141/Statement+from+the+Egyptian+Revolutionary+Socialists+on+the+massacre+in+Cairo * * * *Statement from the Egyptian Revolutionary Socialists on the massacre in Cairo Down with military rule! Down with Al-Sisi, the leader of the counter-revolution! August 14, 2013 The bloody dissolution of the sit-ins in Al-Nahda Square and Raba'a al-Adawiyya is nothing but a massacreprepared in advance. It aims to liquidate the Muslim Brotherhood. But, it is also part of a plan to liquidate the Egyptian Revolution and restore the military-police state of the Mubarak regime. The Revolutionary Socialists did not defend the regime of Mohamed Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood for a single day. We were always in the front ranks of the opposition to that criminal, failed regime which betrayed the goals of the Egyptian Revolution. It even protected the pillars of the Mubarak regime and its security apparatus, armed forces and corrupt businessmen. We strongly participated in the revolutionary wave of 30 June. Neither did we defend for a single day the sit-ins by the Brotherhood and their attempts to return Mursi to power. But we have to put the events of today in their context, which is the use of the military to smash up workers' strikes. We also see the appointment of new provincial governorslargely drawn from the ranks of the remnants of the old regime, the police and military generals. Then there are the policies of General Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi's government. It has adopted a road-map clearly hostile to the goals and demands of the Egyptian revolution, which are freedom, dignity and social justice. This is the context for the brutal massacre which the army and police are committing. It is a bloody dress rehearsal for the liquidation of the Egyptian Revolution. It aims to break the revolutionary will of all Egyptians who are claiming their rights, whether workers, poor, or revolutionary youth, by creating a state of terror. However, the reaction by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists in attacking Christians and their churches, is a sectarian crime which only serves the forces of counter-revolution. The filthy attempt to create a civil war, in which Egyptian Christians will fall victims to the reactionary Muslim Brotherhood, is one in which Mubarak's state and Al-Sisi are complicit, who have never for a single day defended the Copts and their churches. We stand firmly against Al-Sisi's massacres, and against his ugly attempt to abort the Egyptian Revolution. For today's massacre is the first step in the road towards counter-revolution. We stand with the same firmness against all assaults on Egypt's Christians and against the sectarian campaign which only serves the interests of Al-Sisi and his bloody project. Many who described themselves as liberals and leftists have betrayed the Egyptian Revolution, led by those who took part in Al-Sisi's government. They have sold the blood of the martyrs to whitewash the military and the counter-revolution. These people have blood on their hands. We, the Revolutionary Socialists, will never deviate for an instant from the path of the Egyptian Revolution. We will never compromise on the rights of the revolutionary martyrs and their pure blood: those who fell confronting Mubarak, those who fell confronting the Military Council, those who fell confronting Mursi's regime, and those who fall now confronting Al-Sisi and his dogs. Down with military rule! No the return of the old regime! No to the return of the Brotherhood! All power and wealth to the people The Revolutionary Socialists 14 August 2013 * *----------------* Live updates: Egyptian president declares state of emergency, curfew amid deadly violence<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/1/79000/Egypt/Live-updates-Egyptian-president-declares-state-of-.aspx> Police clear two major pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo; violent clashes erupt nationwide leaving dozens dead Egypt police attack Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in Cairo<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/78982/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-police-attack-Muslim-Brotherhood-sitins-in-C.aspx> Pro-Morsi protests will be dispersed 'according to the law': Egypt's FM<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/78822/Egypt/Politics-/ProMorsi-protests-will-be-dispersed-according-to-t.aspx> Security forces deployments beefed up around pro-Morsi sit-ins<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/78823/Egypt/Politics-/Security-forces-deployments-beefed-up-around-proMo.aspx> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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