Bahraini Security Forces Attack Protesters with Tear Gas

Hundreds of riot police attacked demonstrators to disperse gatherings and protest rallies in different parts of Bahrain, an opposition party said on Monday, according to FNA.

Thousands of people in different Bahraini cities and villages staged protest rallies concurrent with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) meeting with EU in Manama.

The rallies were held upon a call by social network activists for a new round of protests against the al-Khalifa dynasty.

“Different cities and villages witnessed the heavy presence of security forces and vast detention of the people,” Bahrain’s al-Wefaq National Islamic Society said in a statement, adding that riot police units fired hundreds of tear gas canisters into the crowd.

Several tear gas canisters were fired into people’s houses and a mosque, causing severe breathing problems for those inside.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the al-Khalifa dynasty.

Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar – were dispatched to the tiny Gulf kingdom on March 2011, to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors.

So far, tens of protesters have been killed, hundreds have gone missing and thousands of others have been injured.

R.S