Bahrain eases curfew as fourth protester dies

MANAMA: Bahrain reduce the hours of curfew on Saturday and urged Bahrainis to return to work after a crackdown on Shiite Muslim protesters this week mainly gave rise to tensions in the world's largest oil-producing region.

The call was a protester fourth died of wounds sustained when troops and police moved on Wednesday to end weeks of unrest that prompted the king to declare martial law and led to the troops from Bahrain Sunni neighbor decided in Saudi Arabia.

More Bahrain Shiite group, Wefaq, said the latest deaths brought the number of protesters killed since the troubles began last month to 11. Four policemen were also killed this week, some of them cut down by protesters in cars.

Sunni and decided to Bahrain arrested at least nine opposition activists, including two doctors from Manama's largest public hospital, which is surrounded by troops who verify identities and conduct regular searches.

The ferocity of the repression, in which troops and police patrolled Bahrain, has imposed a curfew and banned all public rallies and marches, stunned the Shiites of Bahrain and the anger of the non-Arab Shiite region power, Iran.

Mourners at the funeral of one of the protesters killed in the crackdown this week have been intractable. Shaking his fist and shouting "Down with King Hamad," thousands of people gathered at the funeral of the computer technician Ahsan Ahmed Abdullah, a suburb of Shiite Diah Saturday.

"I'm not angry. I'm proud of my son. He is a martyr," his mother said. "He wanted to end this regime."

Ahsan was buried in a field near the first man killed in the uprising that began last month and whose tomb was covered with flowers and photographs. As the men lowered the body into the grave, women dressed in black chador broken to organize a small protest on the side of the road.

"Down with the regime," they cried.

Ahsan was the second protester to be buried this week, and police and troops did not intervene to disperse mourners despite a general ban on all public gatherings.