Protests Ignite Across Middle East

NOVANEWS

Many Demonstrators Beaten, Arrested, Some Even Killed
Across the Middle East, peaceful protesters took to the streets. Many have been arrested and beaten by authorities, and some have been killed.

Early this morning in Bahrain, without warning, riot police attacked sleeping protesters, firing teargas, rubber bullets, and pellets.

Police surrounded an area where up to 3,000 protesters, including families with children, were sleeping, leaving no means of escape, said Maryam al-Khawaja, of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Three were killed and scores injured, she told us.
Read details of the attacks in Bahrain >>

More than 1,000 demonstrators marched in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on Tuesday. Several hundred paramilitaries carrying bats, assault rifles, stun guns, and tear gasguns, charged the protesters, witnesses said.

Mizar Baggash Ghanem told Human Rights Watch that the security forces shocked him with a stun gun. His back bore several fresh red wounds.
Read the accounts of protesters in Yemen >>

Thousands of Iranians gathered Monday to protest a wave of arrests and a clampdown on telephone and internet access. Security forces broke up crowds with teargas and batons, witnesses said.

One demonstrator said he saw many people injured from blows with batons and sticks by riot police and paramilitary forces.

Read eyewitness accounts of attacks in Iran >>

Libyans in Benghazi staged protests after authorities arrested key activists. Authorities used teargas and batons, as well as attackers in street clothes, to disperse them. Sources told us that one person was killed. Human Rights Watch has compiled a list of those arrested.

Read about the arrests in Libya >>

Governments should rein in their riot police and ensure full investigations into these abuses.

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