Bahrain

Re "U.S. Accuses Iran of Covert Actions Abroad," June 6: Unemployment, socioeconomic problems, absence of democratic institutions and restrictions on freedom of expression and the press have given rise to the social unrest in Bahrain. The government in Bahrain and certain other governments point to some Bahraini students who might have studied in religious schools in Qom and thus allege that Iran intended to use these religious students to stage a coup d'etat there. The concerted effort to explain the internal problems of Bahrain in terms of foreign instigation serves two ill-conceived objectives.

Congressional delegation members began arriving Saturday in Bahrain to assess security for U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf as cleanup crews worked aboard the crippled U.S. Navy frigate Stark. The crews were clearing twisted metal from the frigate's wrecked electronic control center and placing the debris in dumpsters, according to a source close to a Navy investigation of the May 17 incident, in which Iraqi missiles struck the Stark, killing 37 crewmen.

The Pentagon said it was withdrawing service members' families and nonessential personnel from Bahrain for at least 30 days in response to information that terrorists were planning attacks in the tiny Persian Gulf nation. Travel to Bahrain is being suspended for other personnel. The State Department cautioned Americans against travel to Bahrain and advised Americans there to leave.

Bahraini authorities said Saturday that they broke up a terrorist ring suspected of planning attacks in the country, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. Five Bahraini men ages 31 to 41 were arrested on charges of plotting terrorist acts against the island's "national interests and endangering the lives of innocent people," the official Bahrain News Agency reported.

Hassan Mohamed ran his finger over bumps of birdshot beneath his skin. He is nearly blind in his left eye, but is scared to go to the emergency room. The wounds would betray him as a protester. His sister arranged to sneak him into a hospital to visit a doctor she trusts. Mohamed was worried. "The police are watching," he said. "I don't want them to take me. " Helicopters hover over this island kingdom as doctors are rounded up, university students expelled, teachers fired, houses bombed, mosques destroyed and political opponents silenced.

Despite its eagerness to show support for protesters across the Middle East, the Obama administration has lined up squarely with the royal family of Bahrain as tens of thousands march in the streets demanding reform in the strategic kingdom that is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. While Bahraini demonstrators continue to denounce the monarchy's reform offers as a sham, U.S. officials are praising the king of the Persian Gulf island nation and have taken a lead role in pushing for negotiations aimed at satisfying Bahrain's marginalized Shiite Muslim majority.

Bahrain's opposition movement was dealt a blow Sunday when results from a second-round election held over the weekend showed that pro-government and Sunni Islamist lawmakers had retained their majority in the country's only elected legislative body. The largely Shiite Muslim opposition had hoped to gain at least a tie in the lower house of parliament, opening the door to government investigations of alleged corruption and the extent of the Sunni ruling family's properties, according to local news reports.

Security forces in tiny but strategic Bahrain launched a brutal assault early Thursday against at least 1,000 defiant anti-government protesters, including women and children, camped out in tents in the capital's Pearl Square. A barrage of tear gas canisters thundered across the square about 3 a.m. as dozens of police cars, armored security vehicles and ambulances converged on the makeshift tent city in the center of Manama that was beginning to resemble a smaller version of Tahrir Square in Cairo, where Egyptian protesters overthrew their president.

CAIRO - Cars raced and protests echoed across the island kingdom of Bahrain on Sunday as the embattled royal family gambled on the Formula One Grand Prix to portray stability after more than a year of rebellion, mass arrests and hunger strikes. One of the world's premier sporting brands competed with the longest-running unrest in the "Arab Spring. " Human rights groups criticized Grand Prix officials for allowing the nation's minority Sunni Muslim rulers to revel in international prestige.

Leading members of Bahrain's royal family have thrown their weight behind hard-line Sunni Muslim groups, some of whom share the outlook of Al Qaeda, in an attempt to counter a perceived Shiite threat, government officials and critics say. The strategy, first exposed in a government report that surfaced last year, has revealed a rift within the court of the ruling Khalifa family. One faction believes in reconciliation with the Persian Gulf nation's disenfranchised Shiite Muslim majority.