Hundreds of Bahrainis gathered today to bury an activist killed in a crackdown on mainly Shia Muslim protesters that has angered Iran and raised tensions in the world's largest oil-exporting region.
Mourners carrying black flags and pictures of activist Ahmed Farhan, who was killed on Wednesday, waited at the cemetery for his body to arrive. Security forces were not present and it was unclear if police would disperse the mourners under a blanket ban on public gatherings.
"This is a big loss... They can say what they want about us but we are non-violent. We will never use violence," said Yousif Hasan Ali, who was in jail with Mr Farhan (30) for over two years.
"They may silence this generation but another will rise up to demand revenge for the blood that was shed now."
Bahrain has arrested seven opposition leaders and driven pro-democracy demonstrators from the streets after weeks of protests that drew in troops from its fellow Sunni-ruled neighbours and prompted the king to declare martial law.
Three protesters died in the security sweep and three policemen died after being struck by demonstrators in fast-moving cars.
The crackdown has drawn sympathy protests from Shias across the region.
Iran, which supports Shia groups in Iraq and Lebanon, has complained to the United Nations and asked other neighbours to join it in urging Saudi Arabia to withdraw.
Its call was echoed yesterday by Sheikh Ali Salman, leader of Bahrain's largest Shia Muslim party Wefaq.
"How could one accept a government to invite foreign military forces to suppress its own citizens?" Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in a letter to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, also addressed to the Arab League.
In a sign that tensions were rising, Bahrain said: "Iran's move does not serve security and stability in the Gulf region."
Bahraini state TV called the detainees leaders of "civil strife" and said they had been communicating with foreign countries and inciting murder and destruction of properties.
It did not name the countries. Analysts say the intervention of Saudi Arabia, which is worried Bahraini unrest will incite its own Shia minority, risks a growing standoff with Iran.
The ferocity of the crackdown, which has seen troops and police fan out across Bahrain, impose a curfew and ban all public gatherings and marches, has stunned Bahrain's Shias.
Yesterday, opposition activists told a news conference they would press on with peaceful resistance, holding a sit-in inside the mosques after Friday prayers, standing outside their homes at certain hours and flying the flag from their rooftops.
In Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged Bahrain to rein in its security forces, citing allegations that they had killed, beaten and carried out arbitrary arrests of protesters and attacked medical workers.
Yesterday, more than a dozen casualties who had been taken to Bahrain International Hospital during the crackdown were gone. Nurses said they had mostly been suffering from teargas inhalation and cuts and bruises. The wards were empty.
Tanks were still guarding the entrances to Salmaniya hospital and slowing entry down with searches, after raiding the compound during the crackdown to clear tents that had been set up in the car park by opposition activists.