Unrest flared anew in the Arab world on Saturday as reports emerged of more than 80 killed in a bloody crackdown in Libya and thousands of Bahraini protesters again seized a key square in the capital.
As Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi faced an unprecedented challenge to his rule, protesters returned to Pearl Square in Bahrain’s capital Manama despite police attempts to disperse them with teargas.
Clashes also continued in Yemen, with one protester shot dead and five others wounded in battles between protesters and government supporters near the Sanaa university campus.
As the wave of protests inspired by the ousters of long-serving rulers in Egypt and Tunisia continued to shake regimes across the region, the chief diplomats of Europe and Britain joined United States President Barack Obama in urging restraint.
In Libya, where authorities had pledged a “sharp and violent” crushing of the Opposition, the security forces have killed at least 84 people, Human Rights Watch said. Citing telephone interviews with witnesses and hospital staff, the New York-based watchdog said the security forces had used live ammunition on protesters.
It said most of the deaths came in the second city Benghazi, a hotbed of anti-Gaddafi opposition. “Muammar Gaddafi’s security forces are firing on Libyan citizens and killing scores simply because they’re demanding change and accountability,” said the watchdog’s deputy Middle East and North Africa director, Joe Stork.
On the fifth day of the biggest challenge yet to his four-decade regime, Col. Gaddafi had still made no public comment. The Libyan capital itself remained calm on Saturday, a correspondent in Tripoli said, as state television and the official news agency Jana restricted their coverage to reporting pro-regime rallies.
Col. Gaddafi, 68, has ruled his oil-producing North African nation, sandwiched between Tunisia and Egypt, since 1969 and is the Arab world’s longest-serving leader.
In Bahrain, Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa ordered the Army off the streets after the Opposition rejected an offer of dialogue unless troops withdrew and the Cabinet quit. Shortly after military vehicles pulled away from Pearl Square, large crowds of demonstrators poured into the area by car and on foot.
The police at first dispersed them with teargas, but thousands later returned, removed barbed wire and reoccupied the roundabout. The Bahraini police had opened fire on protesters in Manama on Friday, wounding dozens, as the Army announced “strict measures” to restore security in the tiny but strategic Sunni-ruled monarchy shaken by unprecedented demonstrations.
“To consider dialogue, the government must resign and the Army should withdraw from the streets,” said Abdul Jalil Khalil Ibrahim, parliamentary leader of the Islamic National Accord Association, the largest Shia Opposition bloc.
In Yemen, clashes between protesters and government supporters raged near Sanaa’s university campus, as a week of unrest claimed its first victim there. A student was shot dead as government supporters with guns, batons and rocks tried to break into the campus and students responded by hurling stones. Five students were also wounded, one seriously, medics said.
Supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh later dispersed the protesters and took control of the area around the campus and surrounding roads.
US President Barack Obama on Friday condemned the use of force against protesters, urging “the governments of Bahrain, Libya and Yemen to show restraint in responding to peaceful protests and to respect the rights of their people.”
British foreign secretary William Hague also denounced the crackdown in Libya as “clearly unacceptable and horrifying”, and urged the authorities there and in other countries to refrain from violence.
Saturday also saw about 200 protesters brave the riot police to rally in central Algiers, where they chanted “Algeria free and democratic” and “People want the fall of the regime”.