The Bahraini army fired on Friday a thousand people who wanted to take a sit-in in Manama, leaving many wounded, while the crown prince promised a dialogue with opponents, once peace is restored in this tiny Gulf kingdom .
Dozens of people were injured when soldiers opened fire on demonstrators, according to an AFP photographer on the spot.
The protesters were trying to get to the Place de la Perle, where security forces forcibly dispersed at dawn Thursday a sit-in against the plan, sources said.
"Twenty-six wounded, some severely affected were admitted to hospital Salmaniya," he told AFP an elected official of the opposition Shiite, Ali al-Assouad, adding that the injured was "in a state of clinical death. "
"The army fired live ammunition against more than a thousand people who wanted to visit the Place de la Perle" he said.
The AFP photographer who visited the hospital, saw dozens of wounded, victims of this first event since the dispersion of the sit-in Thursday that killed four, according to the opposition and families victims.
The shooting occurred while the Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, speaking on state television to promise a dialogue with the opposition once calm was restored.
"I make no distinction between a Bahraini and another and what is happening now is unacceptable," said Prince Salman.
"Bahrain has never been a police state," he said, stressing: "I'm not lying.All these people are my countrymen and the phase we are going through is difficult and requires us to be all responsible, "he said.
"It is important that our dialogue is going on in a quiet overall," he said, assuring that "no subject can not be excluded from this dialogue."
"Bahrain is currently experiencing a state of division and that is unacceptable," he hammered the prince, noting that "many countries have experienced such a state but that their elders have come to talk of everything in a calm."
King Hamad Ben Issa Al-Khalifa, then decided to instruct the Crown Prince's "dialogue with all parties without exception," including the opposition, giving him why "the powers necessary", according to state television State.
Through cooperation "sincere", "Bahrain will come out stronger," he said.
Bahrain, a small kingdom populated predominantly Shia is ruled since the 18th century by a Sunni dynasty.
While the Shiites buried Friday killed four of their suppression of a sit-in demanding democratic reforms, suppressed by force Thursday before dawn, thousands of Sunnis marched in Manama to express their support to King Hamad bin Salman Al-Khalifa.
The opposition claimed the government's resignation after the dispersion by the force of a peaceful rally, said Thursday at the AFP chief of Shiite Al-Wefaq, Sheikh Ali Salman.
The Prime Minister, Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the king's uncle, is in the position since Bahrain's independence in 1971.
Because of continuing tensions, the opposition groups have decided to postpone until Tuesday a march originally scheduled Saturday. At the initiative of seven opposition groups, the march was to converge on the Place de la Perle.
Bahrain is of strategic importance for Washington, which has set up the headquarters of its Fifth Fleet, to monitor the maritime routes used by tankers to support operations in Afghanistan and to counter a potential Iranian threat.
