MANAMA, Bahrain, March 11, (Agencies): Security forces reinforced by pro-government mobs fired rubber bullets and tear gas Friday to scatter protesters near Bahrain’s royal palace, as a conflict deepened between Sunni Muslims backing the ruling system and Shiites demanding it give up its monopoly on power.
The clashes broke out after an hours-long standoff between tens of thousands of demonstrators facing down lines of riot police and Sunni vigilantes carrying swords, clubs, metals pipes and stones. One protester, Habib Ibreeq, said people used private cars to ferry the injured to hospitals.
The latest clash reinforces the sense that nearly a month of protests led by the Shiite majority to demand sweeping political reforms was veering toward sectarian street battles between the divided communities. Shiites, who complain of discrimination, are also increasingly calling for the ouster of the Western-allied Sunni monarchy ruling the small but strategic island nation that is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

The full number of injured was not immediately clear, but witnesses said it included dozens of people overcome by tear gas and others hit by stones or cut by blades.
Some main opposition parties had called for the march to be canceled, fearing Bahrain was moving dangerously close to full-scale sectarian battles after weeks of protests modeled on the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. On Thursday, students clashed at a school and Sunni groups burned a Shiite-owned supermarket and threatened other businesses.
But Shiite youth groups ignored the appeals to call off the protest near the offices and compounds of Bahrain’s king and other members of the ruling dynasty that has held power for more than two centuries.
The brief — but intense — melee began as protesters began to withdraw from a razor wire barrier separating the two sides. Witnesses said some stones were thrown from the pro-government mobs and they began to pour through an opening in the blockade.
Within moments, police had fired tear gas and rubber bullets to drive back the demonstrators, who included children.
A statement earlier by Bahrain’s Interior Ministry warned against holding the march amid a “level of sectarian tension that threatens Bahrain’s social fabric.”
Hours before the clash, pro-government bands attacked several cars trying to reach the area near the royal compounds.
Johnny Miller, a British cameraman on assignment for Iran’s state-run Press TV, said dozens of assailants broke the windows of their car and insulted his Bahraini Shiite assistant.

Warned
Bahrain’s top Shiite Muslim cleric warned protesters on Friday not to slip into a sectarian conflict with Sunni Muslims that would undermine the opposition’s campaign for political reform.
Hardline Bahraini opposition and youth groups were preparing to march towards the royal court on Friday, a demonstration that could spark fighting on a Gulf island where the majority is Shiite Muslim but the ruling family is Sunni Muslim.
Moderate opposition leaders including the largest Shiite opposition party Wefaq, have urged hardliners to stop the march. Speaking hours before the protesters were due to set off, Sheikh Issa Qassim, the most influential religious authority among Bahraini Shi’ites, told worshippers that the government was inciting sectarian tension and called on protesters not to get involved in actions that would damage their campaign.

“I say to all our people, Sunnis and Shiite, that it is forbidden to shed the blood of anyone under any pretext. We must all hold those who are inciting sectarian conflict accountable to what they are doing,” Sheikh Issa said in his Friday sermon.
“I call on those who consider themselves to be part of the protest movement not to indulge in anything that will bring more sufferings to the society and the country and to refrain from anything that can be considered harmful to all.”
No more than a few thousand were expected to join the Bahrain march but Sunni civilians planned to block their advance.
Moderates led by Wefaq want constitutional reforms and have called a less provocative rally set to draw many thousands.
A coalition of small Shiite parties behind the march on the royal court are calling for the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic, alarming the Sunni community.
“There are those who are attempting to drag our society towards sectarian violence ... Our demands are political ones, and have nothing to do with demands for a sect,” Sheikh Issa said.
“We are demanding democracy, and in democracy no sect wins over another, and we do not call for one group to have the more influence or power, and we are not calling for marginalization of any segment. We are not calling for removing anybody or for sidelining any section of society.”