Protesters call for the end of the monarchy
Four people were killed on Thursday after civil unrest rocked the Bahraini capital of Manama, where thousands of protesters took to the streets to voice their displeasure with the ruling royal family. “We used to demand for the prime minister to step down, but now our demand is for the ruling family to get out,” said Ahmed Makki Abu Taki, the brother of one of the victims. Pro-government supporters held their own rally, protected by security forces, after Friday prayers at Manama’s Grand Mosque. While a Sunni Muslim elite rules Bahrain, the majority of the population is Shia. France has already suspended exports of security equipment to Bahrain and Libya, where hundreds of anti-Gaddafi protestors gathered in the city of Benghazi.