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Bahrain: Videos of Dawn Raid on Lulu Roundabout

Categories: Middle East & North Africa, Bahrain, Human Rights, Politics, Protest

This post is part of our special coverage of Bahrain Protests 2011 [1].

In the early hours of Thursday 17th February, 2011, at around 3am Bahrain time, riot police force attacked sleeping protesters at Lulu Roundabout, the focal point of Bahrain's ongoing Day of Wrath [2] protests. These are some of the videos of the events that have surfaced so far.

From YouTube account alibh1 [3]:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYozYph6OVU [4]

From YouTube account albahrain2011 [5]:

A video of riot police above the Lulu Roundabout flyover [6] from Twitter account @tariqal [7].

The Ministry of Interior has issued a statement [8] on the events on their official website:

MOI:

The Ministry of Interior’s spokesperson, Brigadier Tariq Hassan Al Hassan, announced that security forces evacuated the area of pearl roundabout from protesters, after trying all opportunities for dialogue with them, in which some positively responded and left quietly. Others refused to obey the law and that led to interference to make them leave.

He explained that security forces have been keen to be self-cpntrol and communicate with protesters through public figures to end the sit-in peacefully, in order to ensure legal practice within this institutional state, while some protesters exploited this tolerant atmosphere to impose illegal practices and disturbing citizens and residents by stopping them in checkpoints they made for vehicles and passerby in the surrounding areas of the roundabout. This was considered as a major lawbreaking practice for spreading fear among the public and affecting commercial and economic activities.

The spokesperson affirmed that the Ministry of Interior had received many complaints from the public of the massive personal and economic affects they had been suffering. He said that the protest in such vital area had great affect on national economy, trade, tourism and public interests and led to traffic crisis.

Brigadier Al Hassan called upon people to follow the constitution and the law while expressing their freedom of expression, and to show patriotism and concerns for the interests of the country.

This post is part of our special coverage of Bahrain Protests 2011 [1].