Live Blog: Bahrain unrest

Live Blog: Bahrain unrest

The latest news, photos and videos from Bahrain, where security forces have arrested several opposition figures hours after they dispersed pro-democracy protesters from Manama centre.

(All times are local in Bahrain, GMT +3)

• Timestamp: 

  March 18

  Follow out March 18 Live Blog here: http://aje.me/fK7Tw1

• Timestamp: 

  9:12pm

  Rumours are being floated around on Twitter that Global Voices Online editor Amira Al Hussaini has been listed as a member of a "terrorist cell" and will be arrested soon. On her own Twitter feed, she writes: 

  To the troll who just asked if I am scared of getting arrested: u r wrong! Oh what honour that would be - an honour I dont deserve."

  Al Hussaini was interviewed on Al Jazeera on Monday and said has been against the protests since they began, fearing they would end in confrontation.

   

• Timestamp: 

  5:54pm

  The leader of Al-Wafaq, the largest opposition group, calls on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to withdraw his forces from Bahrain.

  "The military should withdraw from Bahrain, the military of Saudi Arabia, and this is a call to the Saudi king, King Abdullah," Sheikh Ali Salman, the leader of the head of the group, tells Al Jazeera.

• Timestamp: 

  4:51pm

  Amnesty International has released a report saying security forces used live ammunition and extreme force against protesters in February without warning and impeded and assaulted medical staff trying to help the wounded. 

  The group says Dr Hani Mowafi, a US medic who was part of an Amnesty team in Bahrain, "found a pattern of fatal and serious injuries during February’s violence showing that the security forces used live ammunition at close range, and apparently targeted protesters’ heads, chests and abdomens. They also fired medium-to-large calibre bullets from high-powered rifles on 18 February."

• Timestamp: 

  4:29pm

  UN rights chief Navi Pillay says any takeover by the security forces of  hospitals and medical facilities was a "blatant violation of international law."

  "There are reports of arbitrary arrests, killings, beatings of protesters and of medical personnel, and of the takeover of hospitals and medical centres by various security forces," she said. "This is shocking and illegal conduct."

• Timestamp: 

  3:56pm

  Iran has complained to the United Nations about Bahrain's crackdown on Shia protesters and asked regional countries to join it to urge Saudi Arabia to withdraw troops from the island state, reports say.

• Timestamp: 

  2:35pm

  Iran has recalled its ambassador from Bahrain to protest crackdowns on mainly Shia protesters.
  
  

  State TV says Iran's ambassador in Manama, Mahdi Aghajafari, has been asked to return home for consultations. 
  
  Iran has denounced the deployment of a Saudi-led force from Gulf allies to prop up the Sunni monarchy against widening demonstrations by the Shia-led opposition. 
• Timestamp: 

  2:30pm

  Bahrain shortens curfew in some areas of the capital Manama from 1600GMT to 0400GMT to 2000GMT to 0400GMT.

• Timestamp: 

  2:20pm

  Violent clashes are taking place between Bahraini security forces and protesters west of the capital Manama, Al Jazeera has learned.

• Timestamp: 

  1:48pm

  Al Jazeera's correspondent in the capital Manama has the latest on the situation in the country a day after the brutal crackdown: 
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  1:45pm

  Bahrain's stock exchange and a few bank branches have reopened on Thursday, but business remained far from normal a day after soldiers and riot police overran an anti-government protest camp in the Gulf island kingdom.
  
  Shops and malls stayed shut in much of the capital, Manama. Soldiers, some backed by armoured personnel carriers and tanks, were seen stationed throughout the city's government and commercial districts downtown, including outside the Bahrain Financial Harbor, an office complex that stands testament to the nation's role as a regional banking hub.
• Timestamp: 

  12:41pm

  Hassan Qamber, a staff member at Manama's Salmaniya Hospital, told Al Jazeera they are running low on medical supplies:
  
  
• Timestamp: 

  12:00pm

  Protests in Bahrain have spread from the capital Manama towards other towns, including Sitra and Karrana.
  
  Several members of the country's opposition are said to have been arrested, and at least six people were killed after security forces moved in to crush anti-government demonstrations.
  
  Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher brings you up to date with the latest developments in crisis-hit Bahrain:
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  9:44am

  A senior doctor from Bahrain's Salmaniya Hospital, the country's largest public hospital, told our correspondent in Manama that "today is a critical day".
  
  "Over 100 medical staff are unable to leave. Soldiers won't let us. We are running out of critical equipment, such as sterilisation equipment and oxygen tanks."

• Timestamp: 

  8:52am

  Several opposition figures have been arrested hours after security forces dispersed pro-democracy protesters from Manama centre.
  
  Click here for the latest coverage on these arrests.

• Timestamp: 

  1:19am

  The UK government has advised its citizens to leave Bahrain and now says it is sending charter planes to evacuate its citizens on Thursday. The AP news agency reports that the Foreign Office has urged its nationals to buy tickets for commercial flights out of the country if possible.

• Timestamp: 

  1:04am

  Bahrain TV is reportedly airing coverage of South Asian expat workers being dragged out of an ambulance at a Manama hospital. The state broadcaster is also apparently showing footage of anti-government protesters trashing Salmaniya Hospital and fashioning weapons out of supplies there. 

• Timestamp: 

  12:37am

  Hassan Musheima, leader of the formerly-outlawed al Haq party, tells Al Jazeera from Manama:

  [Bahraini security forces] should stop killing people. The US especially knows that the people are struggling for democracy in a peaceful way. All the journalists came and saw the people protesting peacefully, and they did not try to use any weapons ... and they were only throwing roses. 

• Timestamp: 

  12:29am

  Reuters reports that leading Saudi Shia cleric Sheikh Hassan al-Saffar sounded "dismay over events in Bahrain -- bloodshed, violation of sanctities and the intimidation of the people ... I appeal to [Gulf Arab] leaders ... to act and call for an end ... and to make every effort to address the current crisis towards a dialogue".

  The video below was posted on YouTube and purports to of protests in Qatif, Saudi Arabia, but cannot be independently verified:

• Timestamp: 

  12:17am

  Many Twitter voices are in support of the anti-government protesters, but there are certainly plenty of comments rallying the pro-government crowd. Here's one notable statement:

  g_alsada: I just called to support #kinghamed #bahrain ♥ #lulu #feb14 ,call the white house 0012024561111 http://yfrog.com/gz9wirnj

• Timestamp: 

  11:57pm

  In Bahrain, demonstrators occupied the symbolic heart of the city until February 17, when the police carried out the first brutal crackdown on Pearl Roundabout. Just two days later, the anti-government groups re-took the square.

  Then, after remaining there for one month, they were again booted from the area. Will protesters try to return during the coming days, or have security forces successfully deterred them from setting up camp once again?

  Here's a recently posted video showing anti-government protesters early this morning as security forces pushed them out of Pearl Roundabout. Notice the goggles, masks, gloves and Coca-Cola that demonstrators used against the tear gas:

• Timestamp: 

  11:28pm

  Bahrain's government continues to crack down on foreign media covering the country's unrest.

  The Wall Street Journal's Alex Delmar-Morgan was arrested by police as he was approaching Pearl Roundabout, and CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom is now back in Abu Dhabi after being expelled from Bahrain. 

• Timestamp: 

  11:19pm

  Bahrain's government is enforcing a 12-hour curfew over parts of the capital city, and tomorrow will be the next test of the army's control over certain crucial neighbourhoods. As political tension escalates, the economic situation continues to worry investors who have parked capital in the banking hub. Although a currency crisis has so far been averted, further strife could cause capital flight. This would make Bahrain the first regional financial centre to be affected by spreading instability.

  

• Timestamp: 

  11:01pm

  NYTimes columnist Nick Kristof says on Twitter: "This bloodshed in #Bahrain didn't have to happen. The king cld have fired the P.M. and boosted democracy instead."

  Meanwhile, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights says that Salmaniya Hospital is "still under siege" by security forces and "food and supplies are running short". 

  And proudBahraini says: @amnesty is it your POLICY to look @ ONLY one side of a problem? Where is condemnation of policemen massacred by protesters? #bahrain #lulu

• Timestamp: 

  10:54pm

  The Islamic Human Rights Commission in the UK is planning to march tomorrow from Bahrain's embassy in London to the Saudi embassy and then onto the US embassy:

  As you may be aware events in Bahrain have escalated significantly, the excessive use of tear gas, Rubber bullets and live ammunition and the military intervention of Saudi, UAE and Qatari troops has resulted in the death of 12 civilians and there are well over 2000 people wounded ... DEMONSTRATE YOUR OPPOSITION TO THE OPPRESSION OF BAHRAINIS.

• Timestamp: 

  9:56pm

  Tehran recalled its ambassador from Manama in protest against today's crackdown, according to the semi-official news agency Mehr.

  Iran appears to be engaging in a tit-for-tat with the Sunni-ruled island Gulf kingdom, after Bahrain removed its own ambassador yesterday.

• Timestamp: 

  9:51pm

  Khalil Marzouk, deputy head of the opposition Shia political party Wefaq, told AFP news agency that the situation in Bahrain was "catastrophic" and that "we now have three martyrs".

  In the aftermath of this morning's crackdown, Bahrain's new Shia health minister, Nizar Baharna, resigned after security forces stormed into Manama's largest hospital complex. Twelve Shia judges also stepped down today to protest "excessive use of force" by police.

  

• Timestamp: 

  9:27pm

  In Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, home to the vast majorirty of the country's religious minority, several hundred Shia demonstrators rallied today in support of their co-religionists in neighbouring Bahrain.

  One witness told the AFP news agency that protests occurred in Qatif, Seehat, Tarut, Safwa and Awamiya. AFP said there were no reports of casualties, just five days after Saudi forces injured three protesters in Qatif with live fire.

• Timestamp: 

  9:14pm

  Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane reports from the White House that the press secretary showed up 45 minutes late to the press briefing due to a "busy day" with so many news stories.

  Spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that President Obama had previously called Bahrain's king in February. Carney also said how the president stressed that "the political process is the only legitimate way" to resolve the tensions in Bahrain.

  Our correspondent said that this was a "slightly tougher stance than what we've heard before but nothing close to what we heard from this administration during other protests in the region".

  But she added that US relations with Saudi Arabia are a much different story. "It's believed the US doesn't have any leverage over Saudi Arabia," she said. "Nothing that will slow down an economic recovery faster than a huge spike in gas prices."

• Timestamp: 

  9:07pm

  US President Barack Obama has called the rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, urging them both to exercise "maximum restraint" in dealing with political protesters, according to a statement by White House spokesman Jay Carney. 

• Timestamp: 

  9:02pm

  Parts of the Bahraini capital remain under a strict curfew, "starting from the Sword Bridge until the traffic lights before the Sheikh Issa bin Salman al Khalifa Bridge, and the areas to the left of it and to the right of it to a distance of 400 metres in either direction", according to a statement made earlier this evening by a Bahraini defence official.

  The official also declared that "marches and gatherings in the kingdom of Bahrain are banned until the country returns to normal".

• Timestamp: 

  8:41pm

  Find the latest Bahrain news, programmes and more on our Bahrain Protests Spotlight page. There you'll also find Live Blogs from February 17 to 20.

  Also, don't forget to check out Inside Story: Saudi Arabia's intervention in Bahrain and People & Power: Fighting for change.

  Sayed Ahmed Alwedaye, who was featured on People & Power as an activist with the November 14 opposition movement, is among those arrested in Bahrain this morning. His current whereabouts are unknown. 

   

• Timestamp: 

  8:27pm

  

  Shia protesters in Iraq and Lebanon have strongly denounced the involvement of Saudi forces in Bahrain.

  In Beirut today, hundreds of supporters of the Shia party Hezbollah waved flags belonging to Bahrain, Lebanon and their own party. 

  Bahrain, Lebanon and Iraq are the only Arab countries where Shia outnumber Sunni Muslims, who make up a majority of the Islamic world. 

  Iraq's top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who rarely speaks out publicly about political situations, has called for Bahrain's government to "stop using violence against unarmed citizens", according to his spokesman.

• Timestamp: 

  8:12pm

  Abdullah Al Derazi, secretary-general of the Bahrain Human Rights Society, tells Al Jazeera that his organisation is "calling on the minister of defense to lift the curfew and the siege surrounding doctors at Salmaniya Hospital", in the aftermath of reports about attacks on doctors by security forces.

  Al Derazi adds: "Eyewitnesses have called us saying that security forces entered the hospital and took 20 injured people to an undisclosed location, and we don't know where they are now". 

• Timestamp: 

  7:57pm

  Bahrain's government has said security forces have secured central areas of the city, including Manama's largest hospital. But Dr Nehad Shirawi, the head of the Intensive Care Unit at Salmaniya Hospital, tells Al Jazeera that doctors there feel anything but safe, with a large security force contingent in the parking lot:

  We are scared to get out of the hospital. We don't think its safe to go out and we don't know what to do ... We are phyiscally and mentally exhausted and I don't think we'll be able to continue to attend to patients in this way. We need to be replaced by other doctors so we can go home and rest.

• Timestamp: 

  7:42pm

  A sign of global criticism of the GCC decision to deploy security forces in Bahrain, Twitter user Mohammed AlMaskati (Emoodz) says:

  Tweeps in Kuala Lumpur announced a sit-in by the Saudi Embassy in KL Friday @ 2PM in protest to the deployment of the troops to #bahrain #kl

• Timestamp: 

  7:29pm

  Hillary Clinton has said that Bahrain and its Gulf allies are on the "wrong track", and  the region awaits Iran's next move, following comments by Tehran that sending GCC troops to Bahrain was "unacceptable interference".

  The Iranian president said that "the way they respond to their own people with tanks, guns and helicopters is inhumane". Bahrain has already recalled its ambassador to Tehran and diplomats are hoping that the tension will not trigger a larger Middle East crisis. 

  Iraq's prime minister has also said that the presence of GCC forces could inflame regional tensions.

• Timestamp: 

  7:08pm

  Abdul Mohamed, an eyewitness at Salmaniya Hospital, tells Al Jazeera through an interpreter: 

  We are besieged here since the morning. No one can get in or out of the hospital as a result of the conflict at the Roundabout. Bahraini army, police and Saudi security are using tanks to prevent people from entering. There are also other forces I cannot identify in civilian clothing ... There is a large number of injured, over 400 people, including women and children.

• Timestamp: 

  7:04pm

  The tiny Gulf island is still reeling from an early morning crackdown to clear out Pearl Roundabout, Bahrain Financial Harbour and Salmaniya Hospital, which resulted in at least six deaths, including two policemen. 

  Local Bahraini TV has reported that citizens should be assured of the country's stabliity, which is in the "hands of the people we've always trusted". 

• Timestamp: 

  6:58pm

  Political debate continues in the US over whether the US was properly informed by the GCC about the planned dispatch of Saudi and Emirati security forces to Bahrain.

  The Obama administration is expected to address criticism that its Middle East credibility has been damaged, threatening national security. The State Department is expected to deliver a statement just over one hour from now, and the White House will chime in on the matter an hour later.

• Timestamp: 

  6:41pm

  The curfew continues in Bahrain and is slated to last until 4am. Residents of Manama are reporting that internet communications remain very slow and that most protesters are not at the moment mobilising for further action.

• Timestamp: 

  6:22pm

  A US academic in Bahrain, who has asked not to be identified, tells Al Jazeera that the GCC deployment has not been well-received by many people in Manama:

  I think it's quite a big change. I don't believe that people thought the GCC military force was anything substantial, but clearly ... there is a feeling that these are not friendly troops, that this is in fact a military occuption. This is what some of the opposition people are saying, whereas the government people are saying, 'We asked for our friendly neighbours to give us a hand dealing with trouble-makers and saboteurs'.

  The academic continues, saying that the force is not likely to spur on political dialogue:

  It's easy, in a way, to send armed forces into a neighboring country, but it may prove hard to remove them later on ... The situation has become much more aggravated and intense, and the idea of resuming negotiations or even begining them is off the table because no one in the opposition is in the mood to.

• Timestamp: 

  6:15pm

  The Gulf Cooperation Council's Peninsula Shield force is continuing to upgrade its commitment to intervention in Bahrain.

  Just a round-up of the resources that are being contributed: 1,000 Saudi troops securing critical infrastructure; 500 UAE police on hand; Qatar considering sending trooops; and a $10bn GCC aid package to Bahrain over 10 years.

  

• Timestamp: 

  6:08pm

  "Officially, now the military forces are running the hospital," Reyad Salman, a doctor at Salmaniya Hospital, tells Al Jazeera.

  Salman says that it was not the military forces who were beating up doctors earlier in the day - but forces from ministry of the interior. He adds that despite "making all necessary communication and arrangements to secure ambulances to reach the places with injured people", security forces did not respect the medical needs of the wounded.  

  In addition, he says "a lot of patients inside the hospital have not been seen, and other patients still cannot reach the hospital securely". Salman also says that he personally sustained a fracture in his arm, and two of his comrades received serious injuries. 

• Timestamp: 

  4:11pm

  The Wefaq party, Bahrain's largest formal opposition group, says it doesn't have any role in organizing a protest which was reportedly planned for this afternoon.

  "Wefaq has advised people since this morning to avoid confrontation with security forces and to remain peaceful," a Wefaq official told Reuters.

• Timestamp: 

  4:00pm

  The Iranian parliament will "launch an investigation" into the crackdown in Bahrain, according to the state-run IRNA news service, which quoted Mohsen Kouhkan, a spokesman for the parliament.

  "There is a great concern in [the] Majlis over the latest developments in Bahrain, specially because Saudi Arabia and the UAE have deployed forces in Bahrain to suppress the people," he said.

  It's one of several responses from Iran in the last 24 hours: Earlier today, president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the crackdown a "foul and doomed experience"; and yesterday, Iran summoned the Saudi Arabian and Swiss ambassadors to protest the presence of Saudi troops in Bahrain. (Iran really wanted to complain to the United States, but the two countries do not have diplomatic relations, so the Swiss represent American interests.)

• Timestamp: 

  3:35pm

  There are several reports from Reuters that soldiers, tanks and APCs are moving towards Budaiya highway, which is supposed to be the site of an anti-government march starting right about now.

• Timestamp: 

  3:20pm

  This is a quick-and-rough rendering, but here's the area covered by Bahrain's just-announced curfew; essentially it covers the main highway running past Pearl Roundabout and the financial district, plus the roundabout itself.

  
• Timestamp: 

  2:54pm

  State television just announced a curfew from 4pm to 4am in parts of the capital. It covers the area between the Seef district, in western Manama, and the traffic light before the bridge to Muharraq.

  We'll post a map in a few minutes - for now, suffice it to say, the curfew zone includes Pearl Roundabout, the Bahrain Financial Harbour, and several other buildings which have recently been targets of protests.

• Timestamp: 

  2:24pm

  The "youth movement" in Bahrain - the loose collection of opposition groups that led many of the rallies and protests over the last few weeks - is trying to organize a march at 3:30pm (12:30 GMT) this afternoon. The plan is to march on Budaiya highway, the main road running from Manama to Budaiya (and which was apparently lined with soldiers and APCs this morning).

  That would be in defiance of the army, of course, which earlier this afternoon ordered people not to gather outside "for their own safety."

• Timestamp: 

  2:17pm

  Reuters is reporting, sourced to an unnamed hospital official, that a third Bahraini policeman was killed today (the previous police death toll was two). Four officers were reportedly injured.

• Timestamp: 

  2:06pm

  The question on many people's minds in Manama, no doubt, is "what next?" Police have cleared Pearl Roundabout, and they have tried to deter future protests by warning people not to gather in public. But the protesters still have very real grievances, which have only been deepened by today's crackdown.

  And Bahrain's state media, which for weeks has been accused of exacerbating divisions in Bahraini society, isn't exactly setting the stage for a reconciliation.

  The state-run news agency is using the word تطهير - "cleansed" or "purified" - to talk about today's crackdown. It's also describing protesters as criminals or outlaws.

• Timestamp: 

  1:24pm

  I've been hearing scattered reports of activists arrested today in Bahrain. The details are often sketchy, but I can confirm one arrest: Saeed Ahmed, a youth activist I met and interviewed at a protest outside state television earlier this month, has been arrested by security forces.

  When I met him he was still recovering from injuries suffered at the hands of police - they beat him, brutally, with batons - a few weeks earlier.

• Timestamp: 

  1:20pm

  A spokesman for the Bahraini army, Tariq al-Hassan, just delivered a statement on state-run Bahrain TV. He warned people against gathering outside - "for your own safety."

• Timestamp: 

  1:06pm

  Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has weighed in on the crackdown in Bahrain, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news service.

  "This expedition is a very foul and doomed experience, and regional nations will hold the American government responsible for this," he said.

• Timestamp: 

  12:58pm

  One more report from Al-Wasat newspaper, which we've been citing a lot today. It says four members of the shura council - the upper house of Bahrain's national assembly - have resigned their posts to protest this week's crackdown on demonstrators.

  They are: Mohamed Hadi al-Halawji; Mohamed Baqir Hasan Radi; Nasser al-Mubarak; and Nada Hafad.

  Hafad was the first to quit, submitting her resignation on Tuesday night. She accused the government and the state media of trying to foment divisions within Bahraini society.

• Timestamp: 

  12:46pm

  Several videos are emerging from Budaiya highway, which is a main east-west road connecting Manama to the northwestern city of Budaiya. One of them, which we've embedded below, shows helicopters orbiting overhead and APCs parked on the street, with several soldiers standing around; the second does not have great picture quality, but you can clearly hear shooting.
• Timestamp: 

  12:22pm

  The British foreign office just announced that its embassy in Bahrain has been closed "until further notice." The closure comes one day after the British government advised its citizens against all travel to Bahrain.

• Timestamp: 

  12:20pm

  Ghidar, a protester in Manama, said in a phone interview that the crackdown has made it impossible for injured people to seek medical attention:

  We cannot move outside even to go to the hospital, even if there are any medical centers open for us, we cannot move... slowly, slowly they are getting closer to us, we don't know what to do now. We are just praying.

• Timestamp: 

  12:10pm

  Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is calling for protests in Baghdad and Basra today to "support the Bahraini people and to denounce and condemn the murdering of innocent revolutionaries," Reuters reports.

  "We want to show solidarity with our brothers in Bahrain. The killing of innocents should stop," said Hazem al-Araji, an aide to Sadr.

• Timestamp: 

  11:54am

  The usual caveats apply, but this video is reportedly from outside Al-Razi Health Center, a few blocks south of Pearl Roundabout. It shows security forces - mostly riot police, but at least one man dressed in what looks like army camouflage - shooting at unseen targest.
• Timestamp: 

  11:39am

  Another report from the Al-Wasat newspaper, which spoke with Majid al-Alawi, Bahrain's housing minister (and formerly an exiled leader of the opposition).

  Al-Alawi told the paper he's temporarily pulling out of the government because of its "handling of the current events in the country." He stopped short of resigning his post, though.

• Timestamp: 

  11:29am

  An update from a doctor in Budaiya health center, outside of Manama: She tells Al Jazeera that "streams of casualties" are arriving from the capital, all of them in private cars, because hospitals in Manama (particularly Salmaniya Medical Complex) are being blocked.

  The doctor says that one person has already died at the hospital, which is "only capable of minor surgery."

• Timestamp: 

  11:19am

  It has been difficult to get an accurate report of the casualties in Manama this morning. Early reports said that two protesters were killed; now Abdel Jalil Khalil, from Bahrain's opposition Wefaq party, tells Reuters that five people have been killed.

  The number of people injured reportedly runs into the hundreds, but there's no way to get a more specific number yet.

• Timestamp: 

  11:14am

  Another video - this one reportedly from Sitra yesterday (where several people were killed in clashes). It's shot from a balcony overlooking a side street, where riot police stomp on a man and then throw him into a jeep.

  The time and the place can't be independently confirmed, but the uniforms and the vehicle definitely belong to the Bahraini riot police.
• Timestamp: 

  11:05am

  AFP is reporting that riot police also attacked the small group of protesters who remained at Bahrain Financial Harbour, the downtown financial hub which has been the site of protests for the last 10 days or so.

  Most of them were cleared out during a crackdown on Sunday that left more than 200 injured. But a small group remained at the site and set up roadblocks; AFP says those have now been dismantled.

• Timestamp: 

  10:39am

  Bahrain's state television channel is showing footage of a mostly-empty Pearl Roundabout: A few people are walking around (mostly away from the roundabout), and a line of cars just drove through, but otherwise it appears empty.

  Most of the fires appear to have gone out, at least from this camera angle, though one tent on the east side of the square still seems to be smoldering.

• Timestamp: 

  10:33am

  We've been sent two videos allegedly from Pearl Roundabout today. We can't verify them independently, but they match with the other images we've seen from Manama today: Heavy black smoke rising over the square, a large group of riot police stationed on the overpass just north of the roundabout. So they appear to be authentic.

  One shows the smoke rising over the square, and crowds running away:

  The other video, which is shot from a different location - north and west of the square, it looks like - also shows crowds moving away.

• Timestamp: 

  10:20am

  Al-Wasat is reporting clashes in Sitra, a predominantly Shia area south of Manama. The town also saw clashes yesterday, which left three people dead and many injured.

• Timestamp: 

  10:00am

  The AFP news agency is reporting that Bahrain's stock exchange has been closed until further notice; so are schools and universities.

• Timestamp: 

  9:56am

  A contact on Twitter passes along this photo of riot police surrounding an ambulance - notice that the ambulance's tire has been flattened:

  
• Timestamp: 

  9:53am

  Reuters is reporting that two Bahraini police officers have been killed today, "knocked down by protesters driving in cars at high speeds."

• Timestamp: 

  9:49am

  Doctors in Salmaniya Medical Complex, the main hospital in Bahrain, say riot police are preventing them from moving in and out. That's also what we're hearing from the Wefaq Society, one of Bahrain's formal political opposition parties, which has been posting photos from the hospital on its Twitter feed.

  One of the photos shows riot police standing next to an ambulance - though whether they're blocking it or simply checking it is unclear. They're waving to a tank driving by on the street. Another photo shows hospital staff standing outside a closed gate.

  And then there's this photo, of doctors and nurses standing idly at the hospital's emergency entrance:

  

  Again, though, a caveat: We don't know exactly why they are standing around idly.

• Timestamp: 

  9:32am

  Bahrain's opposition Al-Wasat newspaper is reporting (in Arabic) that two people have been killed so far: Ja'afar Mohamed Abd Ali Salman, 41, from Karana; and Ahmed Abdallah Hasan, 23, from Hamad Town.

  The report also says that several military helicopters are orbiting over Pearl Roundabout.

• Timestamp: 

  9:27am

  This photograph, taken from a building to the west of Pearl Roundabout, was posted on Twitter a few minutes ago by @khokhz. It shows several tents on fire and heavy black smoke rising over the roundabout:

  
• Timestamp: 

  9:23am

  The crackdown, which started close to two hours ago, seems to have largely succeeded in clearing the roundabout: Witnesses say the protesters camped out there have fled, and photos show dozens - if not hundreds - of police officers surrounding the area.