Tear gas fired in Bahrain protest

Security forces have fired tear gas on thousands of protest marchers in Bahrain's capital after angry calls to topple the Gulf nation's monarchy.

Soldiers fired tear gas and shot heavy weapons into the air as thousands of protest marchers defied a government ban in Bahrain’s capital.

Protesters streamed toward the landmark square that has been the symbolic centre of the uprising against the Gulf nation’s leaders.

Hospital officials said at least 20 people were injured, some seriously.

Ambulance sirens were heard throughout central Manama a day after riot police swept through the protest encampment in Pearl Square, killing at least five people.

An Associated Press cameraman saw army units shooting anti-aircraft weapons above the protesters in apparent warning shots and attempts to drive them back from security cordons about 200 yards from the square.

The clash came just hours after funeral mourners and worshippers at Friday prayers called for the toppling of the Western-allied monarchy in the tiny island nation that is home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.

The cries against the king and his inner circle – at a main Shiite mosque and at burials for those killed in Thursday’s crushing attack – reflect an important escalation of the political uprising, which began with calls to weaken the Sunni monarchy’s power and address claims of discrimination against the Shiite majority in the tiny island nation.

The mood, however, appears to have turned toward defiance of the entire ruling system after the brutal crackdown on a protest encampment in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, which left at least five dead, more than 230 injured and put the nation under emergency-style footing with military forces in key areas and checkpoints on main roads.

“The regime has broken something inside of me. ... All of these people gathered today have had something broken in them,” said Ahmed Makki Abu Taki at the funeral for his 23-year-old brother, Mahmoud, who was killed in the pre-dawn sweep through the protest camp in Manama’s Pearl Square. “We used to demand for the prime minister to step down, but now our demand is for the ruling family to get out.”

The White House has expressed “strong displeasure” about the rising tensions in Bahrain. The 5th Fleet is the centrepiece of the Pentagon’s efforts to confront growing Iranian military ambitions in the region.