Bahrain tries to stifle new protests

MANAMA, Bahrain - Bahrain on Sunday deployed thousands of security forces to confront antigovernment protesters ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Shiite-led uprising that seeks to loosen the Sunni dynasty's monopoly on power.

Opposition groups urged marchers to stream toward an empty lot dubbed "Freedom Square" outside the capital, Manama. Some activists are seeking to occupy the site before Tuesday's anniversary of the start of the protests, and turn it into a semipermanent hub for the uprising to replace Pearl Square.

The central Manama intersection was the opposition's headquarters during the first weeks of the Shiite majority's campaign against the Sunni monarchy. Security forces stormed the protesters' encampment at the landmark square after authorities imposed martial law in March and tore down the pearl sculpture that marked the site.

The now heavily guarded square holds great symbolic value for Bahrain's opposition movement, and protesters have repeatedly tried to retake it. But the capital has largely been off-limits to demonstrators since March.

Battles between security forces and protesters still flare up almost daily in the predominantly Shiite villages around the capital.

Bahrain's Sunni monarchy has warned it would not tolerate a spike in protests to mark the anniversary. Sporadic clashes occurred Sunday, with police firing tear gas.

The island's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa said last year's events were regrettable, although he played down the threat the protests had posed to the 200-year-old rule of the Sunni dynasty.

The king said that a massive opposition movement did not really exist in the country.

"I regret the events of the past year," he told the German weekly Der Spiegel in an interview published Sunday. "But there is no opposition in Bahrain, not in the sense of a united bloc. Such a thing is not in our constitution. There are just people with different views, and that is good."

Shiites account for about 70 percent of Bahrain's population of 525,000 people, but they say they have faced decades of discrimination, such as being blocked from top political and security posts.

Bahrain's Sunni rulers have promised an overhaul, although they refused to make the far-reaching changes the protesters and the main Shiite group, Al Wefaq, have demanded. Those include ending the monarchy's ability to select the government and set state policies.

Al Wefaq criticized the authorities for imposing "a siege" on the villages around Manama ahead of the first anniversary of Bahrain's "revolution."

Its statement Sunday said police had stormed houses and fired tear gas indiscriminately in densely populated civilian areas. There were no reports of injuries, but Al Wefaq said several people had been detained.

At least 40 people have been killed during months of political unrest in Bahrain, the Persian Gulf country hardest hit by unrest during last year's Arab Spring protests. Neighboring Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-ruled gulf states dispatched troops to Bahrain in March to help crush the protests.