Bahrain security forces assault sleeping protesters in capital square

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-middle-east-protests-20110217,0,6035109.story

Bahrain authorities launch surprise attack on protesters
Tear gas canisters bombard sleeping protesters in Manama's Pearl Square. At least two men are reported killed by rubber bullets.
By Ned Parker and Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times

Security forces in tiny but strategic Bahrain launched a brutal assault early Thursday against at least 1,000 defiant anti-government protesters, including women and children, camped out in tents in the capital's Pearl Square.

A barrage of tear gas canisters thundered across the square about 3 a.m. as dozens of police cars, armored security vehicles and ambulances converged on a makeshift tent city in the center of Manama that was beginning to resemble a smaller version of Tahrir Square in Cairo, where Egyptian protesters this month were successful in overthrowing their president.

Most of the protesters in Pearl Square were asleep when the assault began, witnesses said, noting that no steps had been taken to guard the area against the security forces, even though two people had been killed in earlier clashes with them. "They told us we had three days in the square," said one man as he ran from the scene. "And then they attack us on the second day."

As flashing blue police car lights cast an eerie strobe effect down side streets and a helicopter swooped overhead, packs of young men with bandannas covering their faces to thwart billowing clouds of gas fled the area, flashing V signs while shouting slogans and warnings. "Get away! They'll shoot you! They'll shoot anyone they think is Bahraini!" some called. Security forces in Bahrain are often recruited from neighboring nations or Southeast Asia. Other weeping escapees told of seeing women and children lying passed out from the fumes. "I was sleeping and then I heard screaming," said protester Alla Mutawa. "They attacked children; they used gas that choked you like you were dying."...