Top EU official defends Bahrain crackdown

Bahrain security forces on Friday launched a crackdown on protesters in the capital’s Pearl Square reportedly killing four and injuring over 200.

Amateur video footage showed heavily-armed balaclava-wearing men shooting at civilians. Shots were also fired into the crowd from convoys of jeeps and tanks were brought onto the streets in a level of violence described by the United Nations as “shocking.” Government forces later blocked off the main hospital, preventing doctors from treating casualties.

The UN on Tuesday said that between 50 and 100 people have gone missing since the crackdown began, two of which have turned up dead. One doctor detained by security forces said he was severely beaten and threatened with rape.

Robert Cooper, Catherine Ashton’s top advisor on the western Balkans and the Middle East thinks this is okay because: “accidents happen.”