The New York Times reports this morning:
And in Bahrain, protesters regained control of Pearl Square in the capital of Manama, overcoming riot police who had blocked access to what has become the heart of the uprising there. The government then announced that it had withdrawn the military, just one day after security forces had opened fire on marchers as they made their way toward the square.
The withdrawal was a victory for the country’s main Shiite opposition bloc, which had rejected a call to negotiate from Bahrain’s Sunni monarch until the authorities pulled the military off the streets.
Pearl Square had been violently cleared earlier this week by police who entered at 3 am firing live ammunition at sleeping demonstrators. At least five demonstrators had been killed.
The BBC adds additional details to the Times reporting, pointing out that police had initially used tear gas and shotguns to resist the protesters' advance, but then withdrew.
Pearl Square has taken on the same central symbolic role for the Bahrain protests as Tahrir Square had had for the Egyptians. It was the Army's failure to clear Tahrir, despite Mubarak's express order to do so, that spelled the eventual downfall of the Egyptian regime.
I doubt very much the Bahraini military lacked the firepower to repel the protesters, and throughout the week it has demonstrated its willingness to commit the most horrendous acts of brutality against unarmed civilians. Yet today the military chose to withdraw in the face of a popular protest.
This is big news. It could very well be the beginning of the end for Bahrain's absolute monarchy.
Updated by litho at Sat Feb 19, 2011, 09:46:07 AM
The Times has updated its article so that Bahrain is now the lede:
Protesters in Bahrain fought past riot policemen who sprayed them with tear gas and shot at them with rubber bullets Saturday, retaking a central square and leading the country’s crown prince to say he had ordered the army out of the area. The announcement set off a wave of jubilation among the thousands of protesters in Pearl Square, the heart of the country’s uprising, and added new pressures for shaken governments in Libya and Yemen as they made new moves to stifle uprisings.
Updated by litho at Sat Feb 19, 2011, 01:24:41 PM
Events in Bahrain are fluid, and so is the reporting. The New York Times now ledes like this:
Thousands of jubilant protesters surged back into the symbolic heart of Bahrain on Saturday after government security forces withdrew and the monarchy called for peace after days of violent crackdowns.
Further into the article, reporter Michael Slackman makes clear the withdrawal of the security forces came after street battles between protesters and the police:
The day started in much the same way in Bahrain, with the police firing tear gas and rubber bullets at crowds of protesters. Young men collapsed in the road and others ran for cover.
Then the government blinked, perhaps sensing that the only way to calm a spiral of violence that claimed more lives with each passing day was to cede the square to the protesters.
The police left, so suddenly and so completely that it took a minute for the protesters to realize they were gone and that they once again controlled Pearl Square.