Manama: Nine people were injured when riot police protecting the United States embassy compound here clashed with 500 protesters on Friday.

The clashes began when protesters began to throw stones at the heavily guarded compound and the riot police protecting it.

Seven of the injured were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation after riot police used tear gas as well as rubber bullets to try to disperse the protesters. No police injuries were reported.

The protesters managed to march to the embassy compound and organise a peaceful sit in where they were addressed by a Sheikh Ali Al Jidhafsi, who urged them to end the protest.
Other leading clergymen also tried to stop the protest before it began, but the protesters - mainly teenagers - ignored their pleas.

Tear gas deployed by police also caused one minor fire at a residence after a water-heater that was hit caught fire.

Rioters set fire to bushes in what they claimed to be an effort to minimize the effects of the tear gas and blocked roads with tires and garbage before they also set them on fire.

At least on gas cylinder exploded and reports said that the protesters damaged a police car after throwing stones at it.

The riots also spread to other parts of Bahrain with protesters throwing stones at a police bus in Sitra and setting a fire.

This was the second protest to turn violent near the US embassy compound in the last two days after a policeman was slightly injured when police and about 400 secondary school students from five schools clashed on Wednesday.

Security around the embassy had been beefed up with additional police units following a continuous wave of protests throughout the Muslim world after Monday's assassination of Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin by Israel.

The US embassy in Bahrain was the sight of clashes two years ago when hundreds of demonstrators - protesting the Israeli siege of the Palestinian town of Ramallah - hurled stones and gasoline bombs at the embassy's walls.

One man died from injuries sustained during those clashes.

The writer is a Bahraini journalist based in Manama.