Two Saudi-owned cars were completely burned and five others damaged on Wednesday night when youngsters rioting against the sale of alcohol in Bahrain attacked a restaurant in the Al Burhama suburb of Manama, local English daily Arab News reported. About 40 Bahraini youth armed with sticks and knives entered the La Terrasse restaurant demanding that some 42 customers leave before they attacked staff and began to break and loot the restaurant and parked cars. "Why do you drink?" they shouted, according to eyewitnesses.
Three people were injured in clashes at the restaurant after one of the customers managed to wrest a knife from one of the attackers and stabbed him with it. The attacker, identified as 19-year-old Bahraini Abdullah Ahmed Al Saad underwent an emergency operation to stop bleeding from a wound in the stomach. He was said to be in stable condition.
One of the restaurant's employees, South African Serge Paly, suffered a minor head injury, and a woman was treated for shock. Fourteen staffers were in the restaurant at the time of the attack. The rioters then set two cars ablaze and smashed the windows of other parked cars before police arrived. J.J. Bakhtiar, a French co-owner of the restaurant, told Arab News the customers were mainly GCC nationals. The estimated damage was in the region of 5,000 Bahraini dinar, but Bakhtiar said the attackers damaged more than property. "I doubt that I will continue to operate in Bahrain after what happened," he said.
| "I'm moving to Dubai. These people are crazy!" |
"Customers are afraid, and I had to spend all day today convincing the customers who had reserved places at the restaurant that it was safe for them to come here and enjoy a meal".
| "... when it patently wasn't." |
Bakhtiar, who had invested more than 500,000 dinar in the restaurant, refused to allow Sheikh Abdullah Al Aali, the legislative and legal affairs committee vice-chairman in the Bahraini Parliament, to inspect the damages. "The members of Parliament are the ones who provoked these attacks, inciting the youth with their hardline views," he said. "They are shooting themselves in the foot by driving investors away". Al Aali was later quoted as saying Islam was a religion of tolerance and peace and had nothing to do with such "cowardly attacks".
| They keep repeating that mantra, even while running around with guns, bombs, knives, bludgeons... |
He urged the youth to be rational and to stop rioting "for the sake of the country's image".
| Not because they should attend to their own business and leave others alone... |
The clashes began earlier in the night when a group of about 40 young men attacked a home of Asian alcohol distillers in the Khamis area. They broke the alcohol bottles but fled when riot police arrived. The group later clashed with riot police in Sanabis village on the outskirts of Manama City and police used tear gas to keep the rioters from reaching the main roads and endangering the lives of people and property. The clashes continued well into the early morning hours of yesterday before leading clergymen and municipality officials intervened to end the standoff. The Ministry of the Interior said it had arrested some of those involved in the rampage and was investigating the motives behind the attack. In a statement, it said there would be zero tolerance for saboteurs. |