The military has been ordered off the streets in Bahrain, offering demonstrators there a glimmer of hope amidst the chaos of anti-government protests that continue to flare in hotspots across North Africa and the Middle East.
Jubilant Bahrainis returned to the site of a bloody confrontation between protesters and riot police Saturday, after the royal family ordered security forces to withdraw from the streets of the capital city.
Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa -- who has been delegated by the island nation's Sunni royal family to open a dialogue with the increasingly vocal Shiite opposition -- issued the directive in a brief address on state TV Saturday.
"The sooner we return to calm, the sooner we can reach our goals," Salman said. "Citizens of Bahrain, let's work together with all political blocks to help return the security situation to normal so we can announce a day of mourning for those we've lost."
While the head of the opposition Waad Society Ibrahim Sharif said that removing the military presence alone was not enough to kickstart talks, the streams of defiant protesters returning to Manama's central Pearl Square were nowhere near as cautious.
Chanting "We are victorious!" and "The people want the removal of the regime," the crowd swept in as the tanks retreated and immediately set about erecting their own security barriers, sound system and a makeshift field hospital.
As the military left, an Associated Press photographer reported witnessing riot police firing tear gas on the demonstrators before they too returned to their vehicles and left.
Scores of protesters had occupied the central square earlier in the week, but were dispersed after riot police launched a deadly assault that left five people dead and another 200 injured on Thursday. Another 50 protesters were reported injured on Friday, as army units defended their barbed wire cordon around the square with live fire.
The protest in Bahrain began with calls for the Sunni royal family to cede some power to the country's Shiite majority, but has since turned against the entire political system.
"Of course we don't trust them," 23-year-old civil servant Ahmed al-Shaik told the AP. "They will probably attack more and more, but we have no fear now."
Bahrainis are not the only ones emboldened by the 18-day uprising that toppled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
In other regional developments Saturday:
- At least one person was killed and another five injured after riot police opened fire on a large group of protesters in the Yemeni capital Sanaa. As anti-government protests there stretch into the tenth day, embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh is blaming the unrest on a foreign plot.
- Just hours after special forces in Libya's second-largest city Benghazi attacked a two-day-old encampment of protesters demanding the ouster of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, snipers opened fire on a funeral procession, killing at least 15 people.
- Using clubs and shields, but no bullets, Algerian police dispersed a planned march by pro-democracy supporters before they could rally in central Algiers.
- The day after unprecedented calls for regime change left two dead in Djibouti, authorities there detained three top opposition leaders.
- Riot police in Kuwait used tear gas to quell the second day of protests by stateless Arabs demanding citizenship and other rights.
- Responding to opposition plans for new rallies to mourn the deaths of two victims of recent unrest in Iran, Tehran warned dissenters to expect a harsh crackdown.
- Anti-regime rallies in Jordan turned violent for the first time, as a baton-wielding mob attacked protesters in Amman, injuring eight.
With files from The Associated Press
