Manama - Shia protesters in Bahrain bury their dead on Friday after a bloody crackdown with funerals potentially serving as a rallying point to test the ruling family's resolve to crush demonstrations inspired by Egypt.
At least four protesters died in clashes on Thursday, beginning with a pre-dawn assault by riot police who drove activists off Pearl Square, a road crossing in the capital Manama. More than 230 were wounded, dozens were detained and opposition leaders said about 60 were missing.
The protesters, from the Shia majority which wants more say in how the country is run, had occupied the square hoping to turn it into a base modelled on Cairo's Tahrir Square, centre of the protests that toppled Egypt's Hosni Mubarak.
Funerals processions in Bahrain can involve large crowds and passionate emotions. Earlier this week, one protester was killed at the funeral of another.
“There is going to be violence, there is going to be clashes,” a protester called Sayed told BBC television early on Friday of the planned funerals.
“Bahrain is going into a really dark tunnel,” he said, adding he feared for his safety.
“If they (the authorities) knew my name, I might lose my job, I might lose my life.”
Bahrain is ruled by a Sunni Muslim king and his family, but most of its people belong to the Shia sect. Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said police action pulled Bahrain back from what he called the brink of a sectarian abyss.
The Gulf island country is a close US ally, seen by the United States and regional power Saudi Arabia as a bulwark against Shia Iran. The Middle East headquarters of the US Navy is at a base near Manama.
“Bahrain is a friend and an ally and has been for many years,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday. “We call on restraint from the government (and) to keep its commitment to hold accountable those who have used excessive force.”
Bahrain is a banking and commercial hub with comparatively liberal rules in a Gulf region dominated by socially conservative authoritarian monarchs. King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa enacted a constitution a decade ago allowing elections for a parliament with some powers.
But the country's sectarian divide makes it more vulnerable than its neighbours to the social upheaval spreading through North Africa and the Middle East.
Most cabinet members are the king's relatives. Protesters want him to sack his uncle, who has been prime minister since the foundation of the modern state in 1971.
Saudi Arabia fears unrest spreading to its own Shia community, a minority there but concentrated in the oil producing areas of the world's top exporters.
Unrest which toppled the long-serving leaders of Egypt and Tunisia in recent weeks has spread across the Arab world. This week has seen deadly protests in Libya, Yemen and Iraq. - Reuters