Bahrainis, Libyans bury dead from protests

 

 

Thousands of Shi'ites in Bahrain turned out to bury their dead on Friday and funerals were expected in two Libyan towns as both countries mourned victims of government crackdowns on protesters.

Both pro- and anti-government demonstrators gathered in the Yemeni city of Taiz and crowds were expected to take to the streets in Sanaa and Aden after Friday prayers to demand an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 32 years in power.
Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians held a nationwide "Victory March" to celebrate the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule one week ago and to remind the new military rulers of the power of the street.
The march will also act as a memorial to the 365 people who died in the 18-day uprising that shook the Middle East.
Inspired by the toppling of veteran leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, crowds have taken to the streets demanding political change, jobs and an end to grinding poverty.
In Bahrain, four protesters were killed on Thursday when riot police drove activists from a makeshift camp in Pearl Square in Manama, the capital. More than 230 were wounded and dozens were detained.
About 1,000 Shi'ites gathered at a mosque in the village of Sitra, south of Manama, for the funerals of three of the dead. "The people want the fall of the regime," they cried.
Inside the mosque, men washed the body of 22-year-old student Mahmoud Abu Taki, whose shoulder was peppered with buckshot.
"He told me before he went there, 'don't worry, father, I want freedom'," said his father, Mekki Abu Taki, 53.
Speaking about the funerals, a protester in Bahrain called Sayed told BBC television: "There is going to be violence, there is going to be clashes...Bahrain is going into a really dark tunnel."
Thursday's violence was the worst in the Saudi-allied Gulf island kingdom in decades and a sign of the nervousness felt by Bahrain's Sunni al-Khalifa royal family, long aware of simmering discontent among the country's majority Shi'ites.
The army in Bahrain, a country of 1.3 million people of whom 600,000 are native Bahrainis, has issued a warning to people to stay away from the center of the capital and said it would do whatever was needed to maintain security.
The sectarian tension in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet which projects U.S. military muscle across the Middle East and Central Asia, could fuel discontent among the Shi'ite minority in neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter.
The unrest in the region helped push Brent crude prices to a 28-month high of $104 a barrel on Thursday and was a factor in gold prices extending early gains to five-week highs. On Friday morning Brent was at $103.
In Libya, soldiers were deployed on the streets of the second city Benghazi after thousands of people took to the streets overnight, a witness said.