U.S. congressional delegation sets off political IED in Iraq

McClatchy

BAGHDAD — The U.S. Embassy sought Saturday to distance itself from a highly contentious "fact-finding mission" to Baghdad led by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., that led Iraq to demand the entire congressional delegation leave the country.

During an hour and 40 minute meeting Friday with Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, Rohrabacher informed the Iraqi leader that his House subcommittee was investigating the killing by Iraqi troops of 35 Iranian dissidents on Iraqi soil in April.

After Rohrabacher later announced his investigation to the media, Maliki, who's currently acting minister of defense as well as commander-in-chief, apparently hit the roof.

The Orange County conservative, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on oversight and investigations, later told reporters that the "massacre" was probably a crime against humanity. The charge, which often refers to a massive crime against civilians, was first leveled against accused Nazi war criminals during the Nuremburg Tribunal after World War II.

Rohrabacher also asked Iraq to consider at a later stage repaying some of the costs of the 2003 U.S. invasion and the occupation that followed. Iraq's government spokesman publicly responded that Iraq would pay not "a cent."

The U.S. Embassy issued a statement explaining that the Congress is a separate branch of government whose members often disagree with the executive branch. It said it was important for members of Congress to meet and exchange views with Iraqi leaders, "even when there are disagreements."
Embassy spokesman David Ranz noted that congressional visitors "do not necessarily express the views of the U.S. administration or even a majority of the Congress."

Rohrabacher, Rep. Russ Carnahan of Missouri, the ranking Democrat on Rohrabacher's subcommittee, and four other members of the delegation were already in transit Friday night when the Iraqi government announced it had asked for them to leave the country. It appears that the telephone call by a member of the Iraqi government to the U.S. Embassy was also made at about that time.

Other members of the delegation were Republican Reps. Ted Poe of Texas, a member of Rohrabacher's subcommittee, Jeff Duncan of South Carolina and Louie Gohmert of Texas, and Democratic Rep. Jim Costa of California.


Rohrabacher told McClatchy late Saturday that he had not pointed the finger of responsibility at Maliki, who as commander-in-chief and acting defense minister was head of the armed forces at the time of the killings.

"If the prime minister felt guilty about it, for whatever reasons, that's his business. We didn't say anything to implicate him," Rohrabacher said in a telephone interview from Istanbul, Turkey. "We did say that the massacre of so many civilians was a crime, and we needed to make sure that those responsible for it were held accountable."

Those killed were members of the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, or MEK by its Farsi language initials, a militant Iranian group that fought Iran under Saddam Hussein and got stranded in Iraq after the U.S. overthrew the dictator. The U.S. has listed the MEK as a terrorist group for more than a decade.
Rohrabacher said he thought the person responsible for the massacre may have been a colonel, who was commanding troops on the ground at the time. He said that if Maliki had told his subordinates to tell their troops not to hold back and to open fire even if they were up against unarmed civilians, "then he would be culpable. Otherwise he's not."

Rohrabacher said he had no regrets for what he'd said and would issue no apology.
Iraq wants other countries to take the 3,400-plus MEK members now ensconced at Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad and close to the Iranian border. Rohrabacher agreed that would be the best outcome, but he said he didn't want the U.S. to open its doors.

"I don't think the United States should take in everyone who's in a bad situation," he told McClatchy in an earlier phone interview.

Carnahan didn't respond to requests for an interview but issued a statement that skirted any criticism of Rohrabacher's investigation. "Last April's reports of deadly clashes and other violence against the residents of Camp Ashraf are deeply concerning," he said. "I encourage the government of Iraq to swiftly follow through with a thorough investigation of this incident."

The chair of the full House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., also had no problems with the mission.

"Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, including me, have, for some time, raised concerns with the Department of State about the welfare of the residents of Camp Ashraf in Iraq and recent actions by Iraqi authorities against camp residents," she said in a statement. As for Rohrabacher's visit to Iraq, "we understand ... that the delegation had robust discussions and departed without incident."

Bahraini Rulers Play Sectarian Card in Bid to Trump Pro-democracy Movement

Finian Cunningham
Global Research

 Bahraini Shiite mourners attend the
funeral of 28-year-old Ahmed Farhan
in the Shiite town of Sitra

Increasing attacks on Shia mosques in the Bahraini state’s withering crackdown against the pro-democracy movement is a deliberate attempt to isolate the political opposition and amounts to a campaign of “sectarian cleansing”, say human rights groups.

Over the past four weeks since the Saudi-led Gulf Peninsula Shield military intervention in Bahrain, there appears to be a concerted drive by pro-state Sunni forces to target repression at the Shia population and in particular Shia mosques and other religious sites, such as cemeteries and meeting places known as Mattams.

Some mosques have been vandalized, with their doors, windows and the PA systems used in the call to prayer having been smashed. More recently, other mosques, such as the 800-year-old Al Shaboor, near the capital, Manama, have in the past week been razed to the ground with bulldozers. A similar fate was met by five mosques in Hamad Town, about 15km south of Manama.

The pro-democracy uprising that began on February 14 rocked the US-backed Sunni rulers for almost a month before the other Gulf states sent in heavily armed contingencies to quell the protests. But the nature of the military intervention has evidently gone beyond its initial avowed remit of restoring “security and stability”. Over 34 unarmed civilians have been killed, two-thirds of whom since the Saudi-led forces arrived. The latest victim is a 24-year-old woman, Azeeza Ahmed, who was shot dead when army and police raided her home in the village of Belad Al Qadeem on April 16. Up to 600 people, including medics, lawyers and academics, have been unlawfully detained, their whereabouts unknown. At least four people have died while in custody, their released bodies showing signs of torture. Some 1,000 workers have been sacked from jobs in major state-owned industries, accused of participating in anti-regime protests. And the vast majority of these victims of repression are Shia.

Nabeel Rajab, of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, describes the ongoing repression by the Sunni rulers as a “campaign of sectarian cleansing” against the Shia population. The upsurge in seemingly wanton attacks on Shia mosques and religious sites is clearly demonstrative of this, he says. Such attacks, as with the previously mentioned violations, Rajab points out, constitute crimes against humanity – crimes that the governments of the six Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, are in effect party to.

The pro-democracy movement in Bahrain was seen as a largely, but not exclusively, Shia-led movement. This reflects the fact that the Shia represent 70 per cent of the indigenous Bahrain population of less than 600,000, and that this group has historically suffered the most political and economic marginalization under the ruling Al Khalifa family who have held power since the oil-rich shaikhdom was granted independence from Britain in 1971.
However, the calls for replacement of the monarchy and for greater democratic freedoms galvanized Shia and sections of the minority Sunni population as well as labour unions and other secular groups. “Not Sunni, Not Shia, Just Bahraini,” was a common rallying slogan during the heyday of the uprising that saw hundreds of thousands take to the streets of the capital.

Some of the government opposition spokesmen that have been detained, such as Mohammed Abu Flasa and Ebrahim Al Sharif, leader of the National Democratic Action Society, are from Sunni backgrounds.

But, having said that, the repression that has unfolded since the Saudi-led Peninsula Shield entered the country has been directed with disproportionate force at the Shia population.

Pro-democracy sources and human rights groups say that the Bahraini government is now using a policy of divide and rule to isolate the opposition as a “sectarian problem” and in particular a “Shia problem”.

One source, who did want to be named, said: “The targeting of the Shia is a tactic by the regime to distort the pro-democracy movement from a nationalist one into a sectarian one. It is also a way of undermining international support for the pro-democracy movement by trying to present it as an internal problem of the state dealing with ‘troublesome Shia’. In this way, the Bahraini uprising is being made to appear as something different from the uprisings for democracy that have swept the region.”

Nabeel Rajab, who describes himself as secular with both Sunni and Shia family relatives, said: “The government is attempting to incite divisive sectarian tensions, to intimidate Sunni people into not supporting the pro-democracy movement because it is being presented as a Shia movement. The destruction of Shia mosques is a clear sign of this sectarian policy and in my view reflects a wider campaign of sectarian cleansing across Bahrain.”

Saudi troops have used bulldozers to demolish dozens of Shia mosques in Manama and in other locations such as Sitra, in the north east, at Al Barbaghi, Karzakhan, A’ali and in Hamad Town. The latter is particularly significant and could explain why five mosques in that one place alone have demolished. Hamad is one of the newbuild towns in Bahrain with a mixed community of Shia and Sunni. The ruthless targeting of one section of the community is being seen as an attempt to drive a wedge of fear and distrust between them.

Pro-democracy activists point to the government’s announcement last week that all buildings, including places of worship, are liable for demolition if they are found to not have a licence from the Municipal and Urban Planning Affairs Ministry. This, they say, is just a way of legalizing the targeting and destruction of Shia mosques.

Since that announcement, the number of Shia mosque demolitions seems to have increased rapidly.

Another pro-democracy source pointed to a more sinister motive. “The regime wants to start a sectarian war between Shia and Sunni. They are humiliating the Shia trying to make them take revenge on Sunnis.”

Nabeel Rajab says that despite the provocation by pro-state forces, an all-out sectarian war is unlikely.

“Bahrain is not a tribal society. Shia and Sunni communities have lived side by side peacefully here for centuries, even before the Khalifa family arrived some 220 years ago,” said Rajab.

“So I don’t think these communities will start fighting because there is too much common ancestry between them. However, there is a danger of conflict between the Shia and the tens of thousands of new Sunni nationals that the regime has brought in from neigbouring Arab countries over the past 20 years to fill the ranks of the army and police forces.

“The regime would like to see a sectarian conflict blow up because that would distract from the common struggle for democracy against the rulers. It would also serve to justify the state of emergency that the regime has imposed, the brutal crackdown on human rights, and the involvement of other Gulf armies in Bahrain.”

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are designated as key allies by Washington and London, and are important export markets for American and British weapons manufacturers. The US recently signed off on a $60 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, and its Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain, which is seen as a bulwark against Iran’s growing influence in the region. Despite the escalation of violence against civilians in Bahrain by Saudi and Bahraini state forces, Washington and London have remained tightlipped. Both Western governments have pointedly refused to condemn the actions of their Gulf allies.

The unprecedented bulldozing of mosques by Arab military forces has disturbing echoes of similar violations by Israeli troops in Palestinian territories. The development in Bahrain comes in the wake of diplomatic cables disclosed earlier this month by the whistle-blowing website, Wikileaks, in which Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa boasted in 2005 to the then US ambassador, William Monroe, of the kingdom’s close ties with the Israeli state and its intelligence agency Mossad.

News update:

Since being interviewed by Global Research, Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab and his family were attacked in their home in the early hours of April 18. Rajab and his family, including his elderly mother, are suffering from the effects of asphyxiation after unknown assailants threw three teargas canisters into his home in Budaiya while the family was sleeping. Rajab, who is president of the Bahrain Human Rights Centre and is also on the board of directors for Human Rights Watch’s middle east section, has been a fearless critic of the Bahraini regime over its maltreatment of detainees. The internationally acclaimed rights activist is facing a summons from the state military prosecutor and possible detention after he published photographs showing signs of torture on the body of Bahraini man Ali Issa Sager (31) who died while in state custody last week. [1]

'US will lose Bahrainis for good'

PressTV

Coexistence between the US' Fifth Fleet and the Bahraini people will never be the same following the United States' green light for the invasion of Bahrain by Saudi and other foreign forces. 

King al-Khalifa (L) of Bahrain
and Saudi king Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
who together have isolated 70% of bahrain's
population through brutal force

 Security has tightened even more since the people of Bahrain were forced off the streets by the foreign military contingents and Bahraini army. Some Bahrainis have started a mass hunger strike in protest at the recent brutalities in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom.

Press TV has interviewed Husain Abdulla, a human rights activist in Alabama, to discuss the latest developments. The following is a transcript of the interview.

Press TV: The situation in Bahrain seems to be getting worse by the day. Intimidation has driven people away from the street protests; however, for funerals people are still trying to turn out and they are paying for that by losing their jobs and risking injury and arrest. Can you comment on the situation and what has to happen to change the status quo there?

Husain Abdulla: As you indicated the situation in Bahrain is deteriorating further. The number of arrests is increasing by the day. Virtually there is no human rights defender left in the country bar a small handful. Political opposition leaders are either in prison or missing or have been killed.

The brutality is unheard of including attacks on women; even pregnant students have been ejected from their Universities. So many have lost jobs, students have lost scholarships - the situation in Bahrain shows the real face of American foreign policy. It shows the brutality and disregard of human life.

We always see the bias of American foreign policy when it comes to the Israeli and Palestinian issue, but we never expected it to reach a similar level for Bahrain. 

Obama's administration has clearly indicated that when it comes to human rights in Bahrain they could care less; they haven't raised a voice or raised an issue.

And the plan is to suppress the movement in Bahrain. The plan is to crackdown so hard that people must give up and stop protesting and then maybe there is a plan 'B', which is probably why senior diplomats from the US are visiting Bahrain.

However, the message from the people is, “Yes, you don't see the protest as big as it was a month or two ago; you don't see the massive number of people on the streets, but it is not over”. The government has made it so difficult now for it to coexist with the people. So many families in Bahrain have lost so much; I can't imagine how they will live under a country ruled by the al-Khalifa regime from this point on.

Press TV: You said that the US over Bahrain has shown its true face with this continued suppression thinking that this would break the back of the opposition. But how likely is that - as time goes on and the techniques become more violent and more difficult while the resolve of the people is getting greater and greater?

Husain Abdulla: The Obama administration has miscalculated the situation in Bahrain. They have lost the people of Bahrain for good. I don't think the people of Bahrain have any warm feeling toward the US, not a shred of amicable feeling is left. They have miscalculated greatly thinking that by supporting the Saudi/Bahraini crackdown on the opposition they would eventually make the people silent or push them into a corner where they will accept any kind of political solution thrown at them.

Whatever the Bahraini people had gained in the last ten years has evaporated. So probably the next step we will see is the Bahraini government through the US offer some kind of political solution to get out of this quagmire that will not be even close to the rights the people had ten years ago.

So the message will be that if you the people had not risen up you would have been in much better shape, but because of your actions now you have less rights and less freedom than what you started with.

They want to make Bahrain an example for the region. What they are miscalculating is the resiliency of the people of Bahrain. They might be silent for the time being, but this is a ticking bomb for a much bigger revolution that could come at any time. I can assure that my people will never give up.

Press TV: How do you see the situation from the beginning - if the government had not come down so hard on the protesters initially when they were merely asking for some reform or even a constitutional monarchy?

It seems that because of the way the government has cracked down on the protesters the people now want a total regime change. In the miscalculation you talk about do you think they have radicalized the demands of the people?

Husain Abdulla: You are absolutely right. Right now those who did not even participate in the political uprising don't want to even hear the name al-Khalifa anymore. They have isolated 70% of the population who cannot see themselves living under the roof of al-Khalifa.
They attacked mosques and other worship places; they attacked hospitals and patients; they basically left not a shred of hope that there would be coexistence between the ruling family and majority of the people in Bahrain.

Press TV: In mainstream Western media we hear of the role of Iran in the Bahrain situation. The latest news now is that Persian Gulf troops will stay indefinitely in Bahrain as a counter to perceived threats from Iran. What's your take on that?

Husain Abdulla: Basically, they are saying that Bahrain will be occupied forever. There is a great fear, an unfounded fear without a shred of evidence, that somehow Iran is the reason behind the uprising in Bahrain. The people of Bahrain have made it clear that they don't need the intervention of Iran or the intervention of Saudi Arabia or the GCC countries. The uprising is local, it's indigenous, it has had its grievances for some time, it's historic, and the people have certain demands that were not addressed through the proper channels so they sought to street protest to bring them up.

For the troops to stay in Bahrain it is a way to intimidate and to threaten those who would even think about going back onto the streets and protesting because basically what will happen is they will be killed, arrested, tortured, or they will go missing.

Press TV: The interest of the US with their fifth fleet in Bahrain have officially not condemned the violence in Bahrain. Do you see this situation backfiring on them or hurting their interests in respect of the hypocrisy of their decisions? That is, inconsistent foreign policy decisions throughout the region; Libya, Yemen, and in Bahrain.

Husain Abdulla: There is a fear among the US and other Western countries that somehow democracy is going to threaten their interests. Somehow if the people chose their leaders it would not be good for the US fifth fleet. Somehow if Bahrain had a real legislative parliament that has the power to legislate and rule that this is against US and British interests in Bahrain. These claims are unfounded. There is no way that a democratic Bahrain could be a threat to US interests - it is a shortsighted view from the US and other Western countries that somehow democracy would threaten their interests.

Democracy is the only way to preserve Western interests in the region whether in Bahrain or Yemen or other countries. Because when you have a democracy you have a political process, which is based on transparency; where people don't wish to revolt; where there is real stability, not fake stability.

Right now Bahrain is in fake stability because you have a gun to the head of the people. This is providing the ground for greater revolution that will bring radicalization.

Bahrain escapes censure by West as crackdown on protesters intensifies

Independent

Saudi troops' demolition of mosques stokes religious tensions

By Patrick Cockburn in Cairo

Mourners carry the body of Ali Isa Ibrahim Saqer,
who died in police custody

Bahraini government forces backed by Saudi Arabian troops are destroying mosques and places of worship of the Shia majority in the island kingdom in a move likely to exacerbate religious hatred across the Muslim world.

"So far they have destroyed seven Shia mosques and about 50 religious meeting houses," said Ali al-Aswad, an MP in the Bahraini parliament. 

He said Saudi soldiers, part of the 1,000-strong contingent that entered Bahrain last month, had been seen by witnesses helping demolish Shia mosques and shrines in the Sunni-ruled kingdom. 

Mohammed Sadiq, of the Justice for Bahrain organisation, said the most famous of the Shia shrines destroyed was that of a revered Bahraini Shia spiritual leader, Sheikh Abdul Amir al-Jamri, who died in 2006. A photograph taken by activists and seen by The Independent shows the golden dome of the shrine lying on the ground and later being taken away on the back of a lorry. On the walls of Shia mosques that have been desecrated, graffiti has been scrawled praising the Sunni King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa and insulting the Shia. 

The attack on Shia places of worship has provoked a furious reaction among the 250 million Shia community, particularly in Iran and Iraq, where Shia are in a majority, and in Lebanon where they are the largest single community. 

The Shia were already angry at the ferocious repression by Bahraini security forces of the pro-democracy movement, which had sought to be non-sectarian. After the monarchy had rejected meaningful reform, the wholly Sunni army and security forces started to crush the largely Shia protests on 15 and 16 March. 

The harshness of the government repression is provoking allegations of hypocrisy against Washington, London and Paris. Their mild response to human rights abuses and the Saudi Arabian armed intervention in Bahrain is in stark contrast to their vocal concern for civilians in Libya. 

The US and Britain have avoided doing anything that would destabilise Saudi Arabia and the Sunni monarchies in the Gulf, to which they are allied. They are worried about Iran taking advantage of the plight of fellow Shia, although there is no evidence that Iran has any role in fomenting protests despite Bahraini government claims to the contrary. The US has a lot to lose because its Fifth Fleet, responsible for the Gulf and the north of the Indian Ocean, is based in Bahrain. 

Sunni-Shia hostility in the Muslim world is likely to deepen because of the demolition of Shia holy places in Bahrain. Shia leaders recall that it was the blowing up of the revered Shia shrine of al-Askari in Samarra, Iraq, by al-Qa'ida in 2006 that provoked a sectarian civil war between Sunni and Shia in which tens of thousands died. They see fundamentalist Wahhabi doctrine, upheld by the state in Saudi Arabia, as being behind the latest sectarian assault and attempt to keep the Shia as second-class citizens. Mr Sadiq believes Saudi troops are behind the attacks on mosques and shrines. "What is happening comes from the ideology of Wahhabism which is against shrines," he said. To the Wahhabi, the Shia are as heretical as Christians. Mr Aswad said soldiers in Saudi uniforms had been seen attending the destruction of Shia religious sites. 

Yousif al-Khoei, who heads a Shia charitable foundation, said he could "confirm that reports of desecration of Shia graves, shrines and mosques and hussainiyas [religious meeting houses] in Bahrain are genuine and we are concerned that Saudi troops, who believe that shrines are un-Islamic and are trying to enforce that Wahhabi doctrine on the Shia of Bahrain, will undoubtedly result in heightened sectarian tensions." 

Some 499 people in Bahrain are known to have been detained during the current unrest and many are believed to have been tortured. Four who died in detention this month showed signs of severe abuse and appeared to have been beaten to death. 

In the case of Ali Isa Ibrahim Saqer, who had turned himself in to the security forces after threats to detain his family if he did not do so, photographs showed signs of whipping and beating. The Bahraini human rights activist who photographed the body was later detained and accused of faking the picture, but the same injuries were witnessed by the New York-based Human Rights Watch. 

There are continuing arbitrary arrests of people who took part in the pro-democracy protests that began on 14 February. Even waving a Bahraini flag is considered an offence, and a doctor who was shown on television shedding tears over the body of a dead protester was detained. 

The aim of government repression is evidently to terrorise the Shia and permanently crush the protest movement. Doctors who treated injured demonstrators have been arrested and on 15 April the authorities detained a lawyer, Mohammed al-Tajer, who defended protesters in court. Human Rights Watch says the families of many of those detained have no word on what has happened to them. The authorities do not seem concerned about providing plausible accounts of how detainees died. In the case of Mr Saqer, who was detained on 3 April and whose body was released six days later, the government said he had "created chaos" in the detention centre and had died while the disturbance was being quelled. 

Human Rights Watch, which saw his body during the ritual before he was buried in his home village of Sehla on 10 April, said "his body showed signs of severe physical abuse. The left side of his face showed a large patch of bluish skin with a reddish-purple area near his left temple and a two-inch cut to the left of his eye. Lash marks crisscrossed his back, some reaching to his front right side. Blue bruises covered much of the back of his calves, thighs, and buttocks, as well as his right elbow and hip. The tops of his feet were blackened, and lacerations marked his ankles and wrists." 

The fighting in Libya and unrest elsewhere in the Arab world has drawn attention away from Bahrain, and the authorities have also arrested pro-democracy journalists and prevented several foreign journalists entering the country. 

Timeline of unrest

  

14 February Anti-government protests dubbed the "Day of Rage" attract thousands, prompted by demonstrations in Egypt and Tunisia. One person is killed. 

15 February Bahrain police open fire on crowds at the dead protester's funeral. King Hamad attempts to appease the demonstrators, pledging to hold an investigation into the "regrettable" deaths. 

26 February The ruling al-Khalifa family makes concessions to Bahrain's majority Shia population. Hardline Shia dissident Hassan Mushaima is allowed to return from voluntary exile. 

3 March First clashes between the Sunnis and Shia Muslim communities since February's protests.

15 March Martial law is declared one day after Saudi troops enter Bahrain in an attempt to end the unrest. The United Arab Emirates vows to send 500 police. 

16 March Bahraini forces arrest six opposition leaders and crack down on protesters.

18 March The geographical focal point of the mainly Shia protests, Pearl Roundabout in Manama, is demolished in an attempt to quash the rebellion. At least seven people die. 

3 April Authorities lift a ban on the main opposition newspaper. 

4 April Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls on Saudi Arabia to pull out of Bahrain. 

10 April The body of Ali Isa Ibrahim Saqer is buried, seven days after he was taken into custody. His body showed signs of whipping and beating. 

13 April A Shia opposition party claims that another protester has died in police custody – the fourth so far. 

16 April Tensions rise further with new arrests and the alleged death of a female student.

'US orders media silence over Bahrain'

Press TV

 

 

President of Bahrain's Center for Human Rights Nabeel Rajab says the US media have been ordered not to cover news on the government's brutal crackdown on Bahraini people.

Reports from the Center's colleagues in the United States say “In the US some news agencies and TV stations were asked not to report on Bahrain and not to embarrass [President Barack Obama's administration,” Rajab told Press TV.

He went on to say that the US and the Western governments have chosen to keep silent over ongoing atrocities in Bahrain due to their support for the country's authoritarian regime.

According to unconfirmed reports, over 420 people have been arrested during ongoing protests in the kingdom, Rajab pointed out.

The Bahraini protesters continue to demand the ouster of the 200-year-old-plus monarchy as well as constitutional reforms.

At least 25 people have been killed and about 1,000 others injured during the government-sanctioned crackdowns on peaceful demonstrators.

Joined recently by police units and troops from Saudi and the United Arab Emirates, the Bahraini government forces have launched a deadly crackdown on the popular revolution that began to sweep the Persian Gulf island on February 14.

The Saudi-backed forces have recently been sighted while destroying religious and historical monuments of the Muslim Persian Gulf state.

On Wednesday, the Human Rights Watch accused Bahraini forces of using violence against people that had already received injuries during earlier attacks.

The rights body said it had documented several cases in which the forces had "severely harassed or beaten" patients under medical care in the country's Salmaniya hospital in Manama.

Why is US backing force in Libya but not Bahrain, Yemen?

BBC

By Andrew North
BBC News, Washington 

What's the difference between Libya and Yemen or Bahrain?

All three states have been using violence to crush pro-democracy protests.

But only against Libya are the US and its Western allies planning a military response.
 
Yemen and Bahrain's crackdowns have so far been met only with words, not action.
On one level the answer is obvious.

Bahrain and Yemen are US allies - especially Bahrain with its large US naval base. Libya is not.
The US response to Bahrain is further complicated by neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Washington's number one Arab ally.

Sunni 'red line'
 
The Saudis were not happy to see Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak go.

"Having watched Tunisia and Egypt go, other Arab leaders are following Libya's lead in drawing a line in the sand and opting for force rather than dialogue

Losing the Sunni monarchy in its neighbour is a red line - that's why it took the unprecedented step of sending 1,000 troops over the border into Bahrain, after which the crackdown began.

But what happened to the "universal values" US President Barack Obama cited when he eventually backed protesters in Egypt?

His decision to abandon an old US ally there - Mr Mubarak - gave some the impression he was preparing to apply those values universally and to break with the past US policy of cosying up to other Middle Eastern regimes.

Critics say it was a dangerous impression, raising protesters' expectations as well as Gulf monarchs' blood pressure.

'Interests come first'
 
"The US always preaches values that it cannot live up to," says Marina Ottaway, director of the Middle East programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

"In the end, its interests come first."

As the uprisings have spread out of North Africa to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, those interests have come to the fore again, with Washington taking a more cautious, country-by-country approach.
For the US, stability in those oil-rich states now appears to trump the hopes of their protest movements.

Its concerns about Iran play into this thinking. Most of the protesters are from Bahrain's Shia majority.
Both the Bahrainis and the Saudi authorities establishment have accused Tehran of helping to orchestrate the unrest. And some US officials fear the toppling of the Sunni monarchy would become a victory for Iran.

Yemen is crucial to Washington for its battle with al-Qaeda - which makes the Obama administration cautious in how hard it pushes Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
 
"The US is very afraid that if Saleh goes, Yemen will fall apart," Ms Ottaway says.
Mr Obama condemned the latest violence in Yemen, in which at least 40 protesters were killed.

Reluctance
 
But he would only call for "those responsible... to be held accountable", without directly laying it at Mr Saleh's door.

Washington has had a low-key response as well to violence used by Iraqi security forces against protesters there.

Even with Libya, the new caution is on display. The administration was reluctant for some time to back a no-fly zone, fearing it could lead to a third US war on a Muslim country, after Afghanistan and Iraq.

It only did so only after it got support from Arab states and European allies.

And it is still not clear how much the US will contribute militarily to the UN-backed no-fly zone or what will happen if Col Gaddafi succeeds in hanging onto power.

With recent history in mind and the tide of protest still sweeping through the region, caution arguably looks a sensible policy from a US point of view.

But it also risks giving conservative Arab leaders the breathing space they need to stall the push for reform and hang on.

Having watched Tunisia and Egypt go, other Arab leaders are following Libya's lead in drawing a line in the sand and opting for force rather than dialogue.

It's not clear if Mr Obama can do anything about it.

Massacre in Bahrain: Hospitals FULL, Doctor Urges World To Help

 In a small country on an island opposite the Suez canal,  anti-aircraft guns were mounted atop police vehicles as a means of putting down protestors.

Doctors are requesting help from around the world:



There is chaos at the hospitals and morgues:




Bahrain Army Fires Upon Protestors