Bahrain PM says protests amounted to coup attempt

Anti-government protesters flee after riot police fire rounds of tear gas to disperse them in the mainly Shi'ite village of Diraz, west of Manama, March 25, 2011.

MANAMA/DUBAI Reuters) - Bahrain's prime minister, who has faced calls for his ouster by street protesters, described the unrest as a coup attempt and said those who took part would be held to account.

The country's foreign minister said Saudi and UAE troops called in to help quell weeks of pro-democracy protests by the Sunni Muslim-ruled country's disgruntled Shi'ite majority would stay until an Iranian threat is judged to be over.

"Bahrain has witnessed a coup attempt," Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa said in remarks carried by pro-government media on Monday. "No violators would get away with it. All co-conspirators and abettors must be held accountable."

Weeks of anti-government protests in February and March by mostly Shi'ite protesters demanded more freedom, an end to discrimination and a constitutional monarchy in the Sunni-ruled country, a U.S. ally that hosts Washington's Fifth Fleet.

Bahraini rulers crushed the protests last month, deploying security forces in the capital and calling in troops from Gulf neighbours Saudi Arabia and the UAE under the aegis of a Gulf defence pact, a move demonstrators saw as an act of war.

Bahrain's foreign minister hinted on Monday that Gulf troops could be there for some time, saying they would only leave the small island state when an external threat to Gulf Arab countries from nearby Shi'ite power Iran was seen as gone.

"There are no Saudi forces, there are GCC forces and they will leave when they are done with any external threat," Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in the United Arab Emirates.

Asked to elaborate, he said: "The external threat is a regional one. The external threat is a complete misunderstanding between the GCC and Iran. This is a threat."

"I am not pointing fingers here, but what we are seeing from Iran, on Bahrain, on Saudi Arabia, on Kuwait, the occupation of the islands of the Emirates, doesn't make the situation a positive one. It keeps it a constant threat, and ongoing one."

The unrest has stirred tension in the world's leading oil-exporting region as Sunni Gulf states including Saudi Arabia and Iran have traded accusations of meddling in Bahraini affairs.

CRACKDOWN

Iran complained to the United Nations about the deployment of Gulf Cooperation Council forces in Bahrain and said it cannot remain indifferent to the crackdown on protests.

Bahraini officials say the protests were backed by Iran and Hezbollah, which has denied training Bahraini protesters, who themselves say they have no loyalty to the Islamic Republic.

The government has arrested hundreds of people who took part in the protests and state-owned firms have fired Shi'ite workers who were absent from work during a strike called for by unions.

The International Trade Union Confederation said in a statement that about 2,000 workers who took part in the protests had been sacked, including 22 local trade union leaders.

"The authorities are clearly targeting and discriminating against workers due to their involvement in union activities," the trade union group said. It called for the International Labour Organisation to form a commission to probe the firings.

At least 29 people have been killed since the protests started ,including six non-Shi'ites. The six included two foreigners -- an Indian and a Bangladeshi -- and four policemen.

Mattar Ibrahim Mattar, a former parliamentarian from the Shi'ite opposition group Wefaq, said police attacked on Sunday a traditional Shi'ite celebration marking the death of the wife of a central Shi'ite figure from early Islamic history.

He said that around 10 people were injured but afraid to go to hospitals, and said a Shi'ite cleric who gave a speech there had since gone missing.

Wefaq also said the government had destroyed a Shi'ite mosque in the village of Salmabad, adding to a number of places of worship that have been demolished by security forces during the crackdown.

"They usually come with bulldozers and police forces surrounding them," said Mattar, saying the government suggested the mosques were built without permission, a claim he dismissed.

"There is no explanation for this except attacks against Shi'ites in general," he said.

(Reporting by Frederik Richter in Manama and Martina Fuchs in Dubai; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Mark Heinrich)