MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — A year after an anti-government revolt forced Bahrain’s rulers to cancel the kingdom’s coveted Formula One race, the grand prix is again smack in the middle of a power struggle.
Protesters aiming to break the Sunni regime’s grip on power have stepped up their campaign against the event — holding rallies across the island, plastering anti-Formula One posters on walls and criticizing the F1 chief and race drivers on social media websites.
The country’s leadership is determined to stage the April 22 race as it seeks to show signs of stability nearly 14 months after the country’s Shiite majority began a sustained uprising seeking a greater voice in the kingdom’s affairs of the kingdom, which is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.
But opposition supporters are equally determined to spoil the party and instead draw attention to their grievances.
“We don’t want Formula One in our country,” Ali Mohammed said during a recent rally against the Bahrain GP in the capital, Manama. “They are killing us every day with tear gas. They have no respect for human rights or democracy. Why would we keep silent?”
“No one will enjoy the F1 in Bahrain with cries for freedom from the inside and outside of the race,” he added.
Human rights groups also have criticized the decision of the world racing body to reinstate the Bahrain race this year. Bahrain’s Shiite majority is demanding more rights and opportunities, equal to the Sunni minority that rules Bahrain.
Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa owns the rights to grand prix and serves as commander of the armed forces. Although the F1 race is the island’s premier international event, many Bahrainis see it as a vanity project of the rulers, who are behind the crackdown on dissent.
The race was canceled last year after the authorities imposed martial law and launched a punishing crackdown on dissent. At least 50 people have been killed and hundreds have been tried on anti-state charges in a special security court, including more than 100 athletes, coaches and sports officials. Dozens of those have been sentenced to prison terms, including a prominent human rights activist who is serving a life sentence for his role in the uprising.
The activist, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, has been on hunger strike for more than 50 days. Opposition supporters rally every day for his release, often carrying al-Khawaja’s picture along with posters calling for the cancellation of the F1 race.
Human rights organizations have warned Bahraini authorities that al-Khawaja may die and appealed to those involved in the race to stay away.
“It is impossible to imagine that the Bahrain Grand Prix will go ahead if Abdulhadi al-Khawaja dies on hunger strike in prison,” said Mary Lawlor, the Executive Director of Ireland-based rights organization Front Line Defenders. “The Bahraini authorities clearly want to present an image of business as usual but their seeming indifference to the plight of Abdulhadi risks tragic consequences.”
In February, an opposition group that has been the driving force of the yearlong uprising warned the F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone against staging the Bahrain race “at a time when children are being killed in the streets.” The grand prix’s return to the Gulf kingdom will “imprint it with the image of death and human rights violations,” the group said.
Race organizers, however, remain committed to staging next month’s Bahrain GP, which has a worldwide TV audience of around 100 million in 187 countries. The annual race has been Bahrain’s most profitable international event since 2004, when it became the first Arab country to stage the Grand Prix.
Last month, F1 world champions Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher backed the decision to go ahead with the Bahrain GP despite opposition and almost daily street confrontations between security forces and opposition supporters.
Ecclestone also has dismissed the continued unrest and the opposition to the race saying “it’s all nonsense,” after lunching with the Bahrain International Circuit executives in London last week.
“Of course the race is going to happen. No worries at all,” Ecclestone said.
Racing officials in the Gulf kingdom were glowing after Ecclestone’s endorsement. The circuit’s chief executive, Sheik Salman bin Isa Al-Khalifa, told The Associated Press that the F1 was a force of good, and that it will boost the country’s battered economy and help the deeply divided communities of Shiites and Sunnis move toward reconciliation.
Many Bahrainis agree that the race will at least bring some sense of normality back to the U.S.-allied island nation that has been the Gulf’s oasis of openness and modernity before Dubai became the region’s boomtown.
“I would like very much to see the Formula One happening in Bahrain, not because I love the sport but because it will help the business,” said Farooq Mohammed, a shop assistant in Manama’s gold and jewelry market.
Raed Ali, an 18-year-old high school student said he admired the rulers for supporting the race.
“I love the F1 and I really want to go this year,” Ali said. “It’s become a national sport that our leaders love very much.”
Protesters, meanwhile, urged international teams and auto racing fans not to reward the Gulf nation with their presence amid the Arab Spring’s longest-running street clashes.
“Whoever will come to Bahrain for the F1 is not welcome,” said Fatima Mohammed, a 19-year-old protester, who’s been filming tear gas engulfed clashes between riot police and protesters. “Our government is brutal and run by a greedy family, who cares only about power and money, not its people.”
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Surk reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Amnesty International on Friday urged Bahrain to free a leading human rights activist who is on a hunger strike and reminded the Gulf kingdom’s rulers to fulfill promises to release all those jailed for speaking out during the country’s uprising.
The rights group said Abdulhadi al-Khawaja should be released immediately because of fears the “activist is at risk of death” after more than 50 days on a hunger strike. Al-Khawaja has been refusing food since Feb. 8.
The activist is serving a life sentence for his role in last year’s uprising. He was arrested in April during a government crackdown on protests by the country’s Shiite majority that has been demanding greater rights from Sunni rulers. He was convicted of anti-state crimes in a special security court in June, along with seven other opposition figures.
At least 50 people have been killed during a yearlong uprising in the strategic island nation that is the home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.
Al-Khawaja is one seven opposition figures who have been sentenced to life imprisonment in a special security court.
Hundreds of other Bahrainis, protesters, activists, athletes and Shiite professionals such as doctors and nurses have been tried in the court, which was set up after Bahrain imposed martial law last March to quell the unrest. Dozens were jailed after being convicted of anti-state crimes, including the medics who treated injured protesters during the unrest.
Amnesty called on Bahrain to release al-Khawaja and fulfill its promise to free all those who were jailed for speaking out during the revolt.
“The Bahraini authorities have made pledges that they would release people who were imprisoned for exercising their right to freedom of expression, but the continued imprisonment of Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja demonstrates that they are not serious about fulfilling such promises,” said Philip Luther, the group’s Middle East and North Africa Director in a statement.
Bahraini authorities did not immediately comment on Amnesty’s appeal.
In June, Bahrain lifted emergency rule that was imposed to end the unrest. The special court with military prosecutors was abolished in November and protests-related trials were transferred to civilian courts after international investigators criticized Bahrain for trying civilians behind closed doors in a military-style court.
Lawyers are expected to appeal al-Khawaja’s sentence in a civilian court Monday.
Al-Khawaja, 52, is a former Middle East and North Africa director of Frontline Defenders Rights organization. He has also documented human rights abuses in Bahrain for Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Al-Khawaja, who is married and has four daughters, is also a citizen of Denmark, where he lived in exile for decades. He returned to Bahrain after the government announced a general amnesty in 2001.
The Danish government has closely followed al-Khawaja’s case. Last year Denmark’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia attended court hearings in Bahrain. Danish Foreign Minister Villy Soevndal earlier this month raised the issue with his Bahraini counterpart, Khaled al-Khalifa, and asked that al-Khawaja either be released or be tried before a civilian court.
Amnesty’s statement said Friday that Danish diplomats have visited al-Khawaja in prison several times and confirmed his deteriorating health.
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Associated Press writer Jan M. Olsen contributed to this report from Copenhagen.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Human Rights Watch on Wednesday urged Emirati development companies and Western cultural institutions building branches of the Louvre and the Guggenheim in the United Arab Emirates to do more to curtail abuses of Asian migrant workers involved in the landmark multibillion dollar project.
The New York-based group said that although those behind the museum projects in Abu Dhabi have made important commitments, “protection gaps remain,” such as a failure to reimburse workers for recruiting fees, which often take months or years to repay.
They are “the single greatest factor in creating conditions of forced labor,” Human Rights Watch said in an 85-page report on the ambitious projects on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island.
Along with the Louvre and the Guggenheim, the island will also include a satellite campus of New York University, a maritime museum and a futuristic-looking performing arts center.
More than 11,000 construction workers, many of them migrant laborers from Asia, are currently involved in the construction projects on Saadiyat, according to developers.
“For too long, migrant workers in the UAE have toiled in abusive conditions, with private and public developers showing little concern,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
“Now, finally, Emirati developers and their international partners have stepped up to the plate on Saadiyat Island to start to protect workers, but they will need to do more to curtail the abuses,” she said.
The group said that since its first report on labor conditions on Saadiyat island in 2009, measures have been taken “to ensure regular payment of wages, rest breaks and days off, and employer-paid medical insurance.”
The project’s developer, Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development and Investment Co., said the company “continues to be deeply committed to safeguarding worker welfare on its projects.”
In a statement Wednesday, TDIC said the company shares the group’s concern on the high fees migrant works are paying for recruitment fees to obtain jobs. The fees frequently trap workers, who mostly come from the poorest corners of countries in South East Asia, in debt.
The practice, “unfortunately, continues to be a challenge,” TDIC said. However, it mainly occurs in the worker’s country of origin, “making it an extremely difficult problem to address from the UAE,” it added.
Abu Dhabi’s plan to build the cultural district off the emirate’s Gulf coast has been hit by a series of delays since being unveiled five years ago. The museums were to start opening this year, but in January, TDIC said Abu Dhabi’s first prized attraction, the Louvre, is now slated to open in 2015, followed by Guggenheim two years later.
Last March, more than 130 international artists and writers promised to boycott the Guggenheim unless authorities do more to protect workers’ rights at the site. TDIC says it is committed to doing so.
Soldiers and riot police expelled hundreds of protesters from a landmark square in Bahrain’s capital on Wednesday, using tear gas and armored vehicles to try to subdue the growing movement challenging the 200-year-old monarchy. At least five people were killed as clashes flared across the kingdom, according to witnesses and officials.
The unrest that began last month has increasingly showed signs of a sectarian showdown: The country’s Sunni leaders are desperate to hold power, and majority Shiites are calling for an end to their dynasty. A Saudi-led force from Gulf allies, fearful for their own regimes and worried about Shiite Iran’s growing influence, has grown to more than 1,000 soldiers.
Wednesday’s full-scale assault was launched at dawn in Pearl Square, the center of the uprising inspired by Arab revolts in Egypt and Tunisia. Hours later, security forces were picking through burned debris and other remains of the protest camp.
In another area of Bahrain, one witness described police in a village “hunting” Shiites in what could be part of a wider campaign of intimidation.
The king’s announcement Tuesday of a three-month emergency rule and the crackdown on Pearl Square sent a message that authorities will strike back with overwhelming force in the strategic island nation, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.
Security forces barred journalists and others from moving freely around Manama and other areas of the country a day after emergency rule was declared. A 4 p.m to 4 a.m. curfew was imposed in most of the country.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in an interview with CBS News, called the escalating violence in Bahrain “alarming” and said the introduction of Gulf forces was “the wrong track.”
“There is no security answer to this and the sooner they get back to the negotiating table and start trying to answer the legitimate needs of the people, the sooner there can be a resolution that will be in the best interests of everyone,” she said.
Witnesses said at least two protesters were killed when the square was stormed. Officials at Ibn Nafees Hospital said a third protester died later from wounds. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears of reprisals from authorities.
But a government statement said the only fatalities during the raid were two policemen who were “repeatedly run over by three vehicles containing protesters leaving the fringes of the scene.” The Interior Ministry also said a policeman was killed late Tuesday.
The government did not say whether the offensive included soldiers from other Gulf nations.
State TV broadcast video showing military vehicles in the square flying Bahrain’s red-and-white flag as security officials moved through the wreckage of the encampment, set up at the base of a towering monument to the country’s history as a pearl diving center. The video showed the ground littered with debris, including satellite dishes and charred tent poles.
Helicopters crisscrossed over the square, which was cleared by security forces late last month but was later retaken by protesters after a deadly confrontation with army units.
During the attack, protesters fled for cover into side streets and security forces blocked main roads into Manama. Mobile phones were apparently jammed in central Manama during the height of the attack and Internet service remained at a crawl.
Hamid Zuher, a 32-year-old protester who slept at the square, said riot police first moved in on foot.
“They fired tear gas and then opened fire,” Zuher said. “We lifted our arms and started saying ‘Peaceful, Peaceful.’ Then we had to run away.”
The government presented a different story, saying security forces came under attack from about 250 “saboteurs” hurling gasoline bombs and later fired back with tear gas. It said no live ammunition was used.
In Shiite villages, people went to mosques and held protest prayers. Others lit fires in anger. Clashes were reported in other mostly Shiite areas of the country, where traffic was tightly controlled by military forces in an apparent attempt to prevent gatherings or a surge of people toward the capital.
In Sitra, resident Rania Ali said police were charging after Shiites even as they ran for shelter.
“I’m scared. I can’t move from my house,” said Ali, who is a Sunni married to a Shiite man. “I saw them chasing Shiites like they were hunting … It is a cleansing war against our Shiite brothers.”
Roadblocks around the country also prevented injured protesters from reaching the main state hospital, which was surrounded by security forces and medical staff were told they cannot leave. The Salmaniya complex has become a political hotspot — with the mostly Shiite personnel seen by authorities as possible sympathizers of the protesters. The staff, however, claim it only seeks to live up to its responsibilities and treat all who need care.
But there have been moments of open anger. As overwhelmed teams treated the injured from Tuesday’s clashes, many broke out in spontaneous calls to topple the monarchy.
For Bahrain’s authorities, clearing Pearl Square would be more of a symbolic blow against protesters than a strategic victory. Opposition groups can still mobilize marches and take other actions against the leadership.
Bahrain’s sectarian clash is increasingly viewed as an extension of the region’s rivalries between the Gulf Arab leaders and Iran. Washington, too, is pulled deeply into the Bahrain’s conflict because of its key naval base — the Pentagon’s main Gulf counterweight to Iran’s growing military ambitions.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday denounced the Bahraini government’s crackdown and the presence of the Saudi-led force.
“The people’s demands for change must be respected. How is it possible to stop waves of humanity with military force?” Ahmadinejad said, according to Iranian state TV.
Iran has no direct political links with Bahrain’s main Shiite groups, but Iranian hard-liners in the past have called the tiny island nation the “14th Province” of the Islamic Republic.
The Pentagon has authorized military families and civilians with non-emergency jobs to leave Bahrain.
The international credit agency Fitch Ratings cut its rating on Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat by two notches Wednesday.
In mostly Shiite southern Iraq, more than 4,000 people joined a march calling for the Arab League to halt attacks on Bahraini civilians. “Bahrain is the Gaza of the Gulf,” some chanted in reference to past Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
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Associated Press writers Brian Murphy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Adam Schreck in Abu Dhabi; Hamid Ahmed in Baghdad, and Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
Soldiers and riot police used tear gas and armored vehicles Wednesday to drive out hundreds of anti-government protesters occupying a landmark square in Bahrain’s capital, a day after emergency rule was imposed in the violence-wracked Gulf kingdom. At least six people were killed, according to witnesses and officials.
The full-scale assault launched at daybreak swept into Pearl Square, which has been the center of uprising against Bahrain’s rulers since it began more than a month ago. Stinging clouds of tear gas filled streets and black smoke rose from the square from the protesters’ tents set ablaze.
Witnesses said at least two protesters were killed when the square was stormed. Officials at Ibn Nafees Hospital said a third protester later died from gunshot wounds in his back. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears of reprisals from authorities.
Meanwhile, Bahrain state TV also reported that two policemen died when they were hit by a vehicle after anti-government protesters were driven out. The Interior Ministry also at least one other policeman was killed, but did not give the cause.
It was unclear whether the offensive included soldiers from other Gulf nations who were dispatched to help Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy, which has been under relentless pressure from the country’s majority Shiite Muslims to give up its monopoly on power.
But state TV broadcast video showing military vehicles in the square flying Bahrain’s red-and-white flag as security officials moved through the wreckage of the encampment, set up at the base of a towering monument to the country’s history as a pearl diving center. The video showed the ground littered with debris, including satellite dishes and charred tent poles.
Helicopters crisscrossed over the square, which was cleared by security forces late last month but was later retaken by protesters after a deadly confrontation with army units.
Protesters fled for cover into side streets and security forces blocked main roads into Manama. Mobile phones were apparently jammed in central Manama during the height of the attack and Internet service was at a crawl.
Hamid Zuher, a 32-year-old protester who slept at the square, said riot police first moved in on foot through a haze of tear gas, firing in the air.
“They fired tear gas and then opened fire,” Zuher said. “We lifted our arms and started saying ‘Peaceful, Peaceful.’ Then we had to ran away. There was so much tear gas and shooting.”
In Shiite villages, people went to mosques to pray in a sign of protest against the Pearl Square crackdown. Others lit fires in anger. Clashes were reported in other mostly Shiite areas of the country, where traffic was tightly controlled by military forces in an apparent attempt to prevent protest gatherings or a surge of people toward the capital.
The roadblock also kept protesters possibly injured in the Pearl Square raid from reaching the main state hospital, which was working on generator power. The extent of the blackout in Manama was not immediately clear.
The official Bahrain news agency said the emergency rule bans “rallies and disrupting the public order” and imposes “movement restrictions” and possible curfews in some locations.
For Bahrain’s authorities, clearing Pearl Square would be more of a symbolic blow against protesters than a strategic victory as opposition groups are still be able to mobilize marches and other actions against the leadership.
Bahrain’s king on Tuesday declared a three-month state of emergency and instructed the military to battle unrest in the strategic nation, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. Shortly after the announcement, clashes erupted across the island nation, killing at least two civilians. Saudi officials also said one of it’s soldiers was killed.
Bahrain’s sectarian clash is increasingly viewed as an extension of the region’s rivalries between the Gulf Arab leaders and Shiite powerhouse Iran. Washington, too, is pulled deeply into the Bahrain’s conflict because of it’s key naval base — the Pentagon’s main Gulf counterweight to Iran’s growing military ambitions.
On Tuesday, Iran and it’s allied force in Lebanon, Hezbollah, denounced the presence of foreign soldiers in Bahrain. Iran has no direct political links with Bahrain’s main Shiite groups, but Iranian hard-liner in the past have called the tiny island nation that “14th Province” of the Islamic Republic.
Gulf rulers, particularly Saudi Arabia, fear that the collapse of Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy could embolden further revolts across the region and embolden the Saudi Shiite minority whose home region is connected to Bahrain by a causeway.
The state of emergency in the U.S.-backed regime gives Bahrain’s military chief wide authority to battle protesters demanding political reforms and equal rights for the majority Shiites.
Also Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rhodium Clinton expressed alarm over “provocative acts and sectarian violence,” and said she telephoned Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saudi to stress the need for the foreign forces to promote dialogue.
“We call for calm and restraint on all sides in Bahrain,” Clinton told reporters in Cairo, where she was urging on democratic currents that chased Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak from power last month.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon authorized military family members and civilians with non-emergency jobs to leave Bahrain as violence spread. A spokeswoman for Bahrain’s Gulf Air, Noof Buallay, said flights were operating normally at Manama’s airport.
The intervention of more than 1,000 Saudi-led troops from several Gulf nations was the first major cross-border military action to challenge one of the revolts sweeping across the Arab world. The Al Khalifa family has ruled Bahrain for 200 years.
The foreign troops are from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council’s Peninsula Shield Force. The bloc is made up of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — all largely Sunni countries that have nervously watched the Arab world’s protests. The Saudi government on Tuesday withdrew accreditation to the chief Reuters correspondent there, complaining about a recent report on a protest in the kingdom. Reuters stood by its coverage.
Iran denounced the foreign intervention as “unacceptable” and predicted it would complicate the kingdom’s political crisis.
A senior Bahraini foreign affairs official, Hamad al-Amer, called the remarks “blatant intervention in internal Bahraini affairs” and said Iran’s ambassador to Bahrain was summoned to the Foreign Ministry.
A security official in Saudi Arabia said a Saudi sergeant was shot and killed by a protester in Bahrain’s capital, Manama. No other details were immediately given on the death of the soldier, identified as Sgt. Ahmed al-Raddadi. The Saudi official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Car bombs struck three Shiite cities in southern Iraq on Monday, killing more than 20 people in an apparent move to derail progress toward forming a new government as political leaders tried to break the eight-month deadlock.
The blasts in the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf and in Iraq’s second largest city of Basra were the third major attacks since last week, after the slaughter of more than 50 Christians in a Baghdad church and a string of 13 coordinated bombings across Baghdad that killed more than 90 people.
There was no claim of responsibility for Monday’s attacks, but the violence underscores the desire of al-Qaida and other Sunni extremists to foment sectarian division at a time when Iraqis are watching to see if their leaders can form a new government accepted by both the Shiite majority and the Sunni minority.
In the northern town of Irbil, leaders of Iraq’s major political blocs met Monday for the first time since parliamentary elections in March. The 90-minute televised session, the start of three days of talks, did not lead to a breakthrough.
The battle is largely a contest between the Iranian-favored coalition of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki along with followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr against a Sunni-backed secular coalition led by former prime minister Ayad Allawi.
At stake is whether Iraq has an inclusive government of both the majority Shiites and the minority Sunnis or a Shiite-dominated government with the Sunnis largely in opposition — a recipe that many worry will turn the country back to the sectarian violence of a few years ago.
Al-Maliki’s bloc won 89 seats in the March 7 election compared to 91 for Allawi’s coalition; neither side won a majority of seats needed to govern.
Recently momentum has moved in al-Maliki’s direction. After gaining the support of al-Sadr, who used to be one of al-Maliki’s staunchest opponents, he also picked up the support of a smaller coalition this weekend.
And the Kurds, who rule the three northern Iraqi provinces, are thought to support al-Maliki’s re-election bid so long as President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, is allowed to remain in office.
Officials in Allawi’s Iraqiya coalition said Monday that they were still demanding the prime minister’s office, but an international observer with knowledge of the talks said there is grudging acceptance within Iraqiya that al-Maliki will keep his position. He did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the ongoing talks.
Officials familiar with the talks say Iraqiya is pushing for limits to al-Maliki’s power should they join forces with him and that Allawi is rejecting a proposed role of parliament speaker in an al-Maliki government.
One idea on the table is the creation of an independent position as head of a National Council for the Strategic Policies. Iraqiya officials want the position to have concrete authority, while al-Maliki’s supporters prefer it to be solely consultative.
“Al-Maliki is very confident. He knows he has all that power and he intends to keep it,” said Marina Ottoway, director of the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “He is not interested in the position of prime minister with less power.”
The day began with a car bombing in Karbala, home to two of Shiite Islam’s most revered sites. Seven people were killed including six Iranian pilgrims in the blast, which took place in a parking lot where people were getting on and off buses.
Then another car bomb exploded about 500 yards from the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, killing nine people. A burned-out shell of a bus could be seen next to the blackened pavement.
Both cities play host each year to hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who come to Iraq as a show of religious devotion. Such pilgrims make enticing targets to Sunni militants such as al-Qaida who often attack them at bus stops instead of close to the shrines, where security has been bolstered.
In the last attack of the day, a car bombing killed five people in Basra, deep within the Shiite south.
The coordination behind the three attacks suggested al-Qaida in Iraq was responsible.
One analyst said the recent violence has helped al-Maliki’s bid to keep his post.
“Al-Maliki has benefited from the public and foreign pressure on all Iraqi politicians that the government should be formed as soon as possible, otherwise the country will slip into the worst,” said Baghdad-based political analyst Kadhum al-Muqdadi. “The people now do not care about who is in the government, rather they care about the formation of a government able to protect them.”
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Associated Press writers Yahya Barzanji in Irbil, Iraq and Sameer N. Yacoub in Amman, Jordan contributed to this report.
A Bahraini carrying a child passes a wall Thursday, April 5, 2012, in Barbar, Bahrain, west of the capital of Manama, that is painted with graffiti depicting Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in a race car, calling for a boycott of this year's Formula One Bahrain grand prix, scheduled for April 22. The Arabic is a signature reading "free men of Barbar." A year after an anti-government uprising forced Bahrain's rulers to cancel the kingdom's coveted Formula One race, the grand prix is again smack in the middle of a power struggle. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)(Credit: AP) 
A Bahraini anti-government protester raises a picture of jailed opposition human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, on his 49th day of a hunger strike, during a demonstration Thursday, March 29, 2012, outside U.N. offices in Manama, Bahrain. Opposition societies organized Thursday's protest against security forces use of tear gas, which rights activists blame for about 30 deaths. Earlier this month, the U.N. human rights office in Geneva expressed its concern about the use of tear gas, citing "worrying reports of the disproportionate use of force by Bahraini security forces." (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)(Credit: AP) 
Shiite Bahraini youths burn tires Wednesday, March 16, 2011, near a shopping mall in Malkiya, Bahrain as they awaited government forces they anticipated would roll into their Shiite Muslim village southwest of the capital of Manama. They said they tried to get to Manama to join anti-government protesters under attack there but found all ways in to the capital closed. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)(Credit: AP) 
Thousands of anti-government protesters march Tuesday, March 15, 2011, to the Saudi embassy in Manama, Bahrain. Bahrain's king declared a three-month state of emergency Tuesday to quell a Shiite uprising, as clashes spread through the capital and surrounding villages in a showdown that drew in the region's major powers and splintered along its main sectarian faultlines. At least two Bahrainis and a Saudi soldier died, and hundreds of protesters were injured by shotgun blasts and clubs. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)(Credit: AP) 