More unrest in the Middle East is met with state-sanctioned savage brutality, this time in the smaller but militarily significant (it hosts the U.S. Fifth fleet) country of Bahrain. The video above is just as the police attacked. Two have been verified to have been killed, with hundreds more injured.

via The LA Times:

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 a makeshift tent city in the center of Manama that was beginning to resemble a smaller version of Tahrir Square in Cairo, where Egyptian protesters this month were successful in overthrowing their president.

Most of the protesters in Pearl Square were asleep when the assault began, witnesses said, noting that no steps had been taken to guard the area against the security forces, even though two people had been killed in earlier clashes with them.

It's been speculated that by attacking in the middle of the night there would be no foreign journalists around to record and document the event. ABC News' Miguel Marquez was there and was beaten, as were hundreds of others. Here is his audio account:

Nick Kristof of the NY Times gives his take on this cowardly and despicable act.

UPDATE: And here's more from the BBC with their reporting on the assault on the protesters.

BBC World News: Bahrain: More than 300 people treated for injuries, 3 protesters dead. "One man shot in the back of head; live rounds used"