A GIRL of two was among five people killed yesterday as the wave of protests sweeping the Arab world ripped through Bahrain.
Another 231 were injured as riot police used live ammunition, rubber bullets and teargas in a 3am raid on a camp in the capital Manama, while thousands of anti-government demonstrators were asleep.
Images seeming to show the child’s bullet-riddled body in hospital were released by campaigners.
She is believed to have been with her parents when officers swooped.
After the raid a body lay covered in a blood-soaked white sheet.
Medics said people were shot, trampled and beaten as plain-clothed officers opened fire with shotguns. Protesters claimed they chased by police down side streets as they fled in terror.
Ambulance drivers were attacked as they tried to reach the injured and dozens of people were still missing last night after reports they had been arrested and imprisoned. Several of the wounded are said to have been taken to a military hospital.
But new protests are planned as Ibrahim Sharif of the opposition Waad party vowed anti-government defiance would continue.
He said: “We’re going to do what’s necessary to change this into a democratic country, even if some of us lose our lives.”
Protesters told of their panic as police descended on Pearl Square. Hussein Abbas, 22, said: “Suddenly there were clouds of teargas. Women were screaming. What kind of ruler does this to his people?”
Jafar Jafar, 17, added: “They beat us with batons.”
By yesterday the Army had tightened its grip with tanks, barbed-wire checkpoints and helicopters. The regime blamed protesters for the massacre – saying some had “refused to obey the law”.
In Libya, six died as Egyptian and Tunisian-style revolts spread to Morocco, Algeria, Jordan and Yemen.
Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the crackdown. He said: “We have conveyed our concern about the level of violence to the government of Bahrain.”