Thursday, March 17, 2011

'Saudi forces reflect badly on king'

Amid further bloodshed in Bahrain, the head of the kingdom's largest opposition party has called on Saudi Arabia's king to pull the Saudi forces out of Bahrain.


“The military should withdraw from Bahrain, the military of Saudi Arabia, and this is a call to the Saudi king, King Abdullah,” said Sheikh Ali Salman, the head of the Shia faction of Al Wefaq on Thursday, AFP reported.

Led by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain's fellow members of the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council, which groups Bahrain's Arab neighbors, have dispatched armed forces to the Persian Gulf island to assist the crackdown on the anti-government uprising.

A Saudi sniper has reportedly gunned down a Bahraini nurse on Thursday, targeting the medical staffer as she tried to reach a hospital in the capital.

The victim came under attack in the Qadam village while heading for Manama's Salmaniya Hospital, witnesses said.

Demonstrators in the Shia-majority country have been demanding the ouster of the 230-year-old Sunni-led monarchy as well as constitutional reforms, with hundreds camping out peacefully in the capital's Pearl Square since February 14th.

Manama-sanctioned crackdown by security forces has killed several people, injuring tens of others.

Salman said, "We call for an investigation by the United Nations into what has happened from February 14 up to now," he said.

Also on Thursday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay denounced a new move by the government to commandeer the country's hospitals amid acts of aggression taken by the forces.

"There are reports of arbitrary arrests, killings, beatings of protesters and of medical personnel, and of the takeover of hospitals and medical centers by various security forces," she said.

No comments: