Regime tears down Bahraini monument

MANAMA, Bahrain -- Bahrain on Friday tore down the 300-foot monument at the heart of a square purged of Shia protesters this week, erasing a symbol of an uprising that's inflaming sectarian tensions across the region.

The monument -- six white curved beams topped with a huge cement pearl -- was built in Pearl Square as a tribute to the Sunni-ruled kingdom's history as a pearl-diving center. It became the backdrop to the Shia majority's uprising after protesters set up a month-long camp at Pearl Square in the capital, Manama.

Security forces overran the camp on Wednesday, setting off clashes that killed at least five people, including two policemen. At least 12 have been killed in the month-long revolt.

Bahrain's foreign minister, Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, told reporters that the army brought down the monument because "it was a bad memory."

"We are not waging war, we are restoring law and order," Khalid said at a news conference in Manama.

Shia anger rose sharply around the Mideast on Friday as large crowds in Iran and Iraq cursed Bahrain's Sunni monarchy and its Saudi backers over the violent crackdown on protesters demanding more rights.

Amateur video footage of security forces shooting and beating protesters has spread across the Internet and fueled fury in predominantly Shia Iraq and in Iran, where a senior cleric on Friday urged Bahraini protesters to keep going until victory or death.

Bahrain's rulers invited armies from other Sunni-ruled Gulf countries this week to help root out dissent as the month of protests spiraled into widespread calls for an end to the Sunni monarchy. In declaring emergency rule, the king gave the military wide powers to battle the uprising.