Armed vigilantes blocks Bahraini villages, Iran condemns military intervention

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armed vigilantes roamed Manama's streets and blocked Bahraini villages Tuesday, March 15, as Iran condemned a military intervention by Gulf troops to help subdue unrest in the Shiite-majority, Sunni-ruled kingdom.

The financial district of Manama was deserted, shops and malls were shuttered and Sunni and Shiite vigilantes armed with metal pipes and clubs were seen in the streets of the capital after hundreds of Saudi-led armored troops rolled into Bahrain from Saudi Arabia.

Witnesses said vigilante groups also blocked access to a number of villages across the kingdom. Women have been told to leave central Manama and activists were distributing surgical masks and eye protectors to defend against tear gas.

There were rumors of a march against the Saudi embassy near the financial district later the day.

The troops arrived in Bahrain on March 14 to help the Manama government deal with pro-democracy protests which have shaken the strategic Gulf kingdom for the past month. Saudi Arabia's staunchly Sunni government said it had responded to a call for help from its neighbor under a mutual defense pact of the six-country Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

But Iran's Foreign Ministry described the intervention as unacceptable and said it would complicate the already volatile situation.

"The presence of foreign forces cannot be acceptable and will make the situation more complicated and difficult," Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, The Associated Press reported.