Bahrain, Libya, and All the Way to Syria: Summarising Thursday's Day of Rage

Opposition in Libya had called a "Day of Rage" for Thursday, but even before they could take to the streets, that rage was being claimed by a regime in a different country.

The surprise attack by Bahrain's police upon the opposition camp at the Pearl Roundabout in the capital of Manama killed at least four people, but even that death toll does not begin to capture the violence of the day. As the monarchy moved the Army in force into Manama, its security services prevented treatment the hundreds of wounded, to the point of inflicting a savage beating on a prominent doctor. Journalists were blocked at Manama's airport, leaving those who were already in the country --- Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times was especially prominent in reporting via social media as well as reporting for his newspaper --- to try and get out an account that took in the scope of the brutality.

The regime's attack, which succeeded in breaking up an opposition at the roundabout that threatened to become a symbolic centre for demands for sweeping change, was not completely unchallenged. Doctors and nurses at Salmaniyieh Hospital staged a dramatic protest. Two junior ministers resigned, and at one point the Minister of Health was reported to have quit. The main opposition party Al Wafaq suspended its participation in Parliament and put out a statement calling for an enqury into the attack.

At this point, however, the protesters are fragmented, if not broken completely. The Bahraini regime has gone much farther than its Tunisian and Egyptian counterparts in an organised assault against a building opposition movement --- whether it can turn this into long-term success is the open question.

Then it was Libya's turn to occupy attention. This was not an easy effort --- unlike Bahrain, there were no foreign journalists in the country, leaving it up to social media to get out some reports --- but by evening, it was clear that there had been both a significant challenge to the Qaddafi regime and a heavy-handed attempt to crush the display of dissent.

At least 24 people are reported to have killed, but the protesters have succeeded in getting out the images of their defiance, to the point of the symbolic destruction of Muammar Qaddafi's Green Book that is supposed to guide the Libyan people. While the most significant protests were in Libya's 2nd and 3rd-largest cities, Benghazi and Al Bayda, there were demonstrations in at least three other cities during the day. And, by last night, there was at least one gathering --- captured and spread by video --- in the capital of Tripoli.

The Day of Rage did not stop there. Protests and clashes between anti-regime and pro-regime groups in Yemen are now a daily occurrence. At least one person was reportedly killed and more than two dozen injured in yesterday's encounters from Sanaa to Aden.

Last but certainly not least, 1500 people gathered for three hours in Damascus in Syria to denounce a police beating of a young man. On any other day, their chants of defiance against the authorities would have grabbed banner headlines. Today, it was just a interesting item down the running order of political challenges throughout North Africa and the Middle East.