the deputy chief of bahrain 's armed forces has ordered the military ... ( associated press ) a masked anti - government demonstrator seen during clashes in sanaa , yemen , saturday , feb. 19 , 2011 .
idris ahmed al - agha , a libyan writer reached by telephone , said the crowd had grown to more than 20,000 by midday — an account confirmed by others — with many of the people there planning to take part in funeral marches to bury dozens of security forces in libya and yemen fired on pro - democracy demonstrators saturday as the two hard - line regimes struck back against the wave of protests that has already toppled autocrats in egypt and tunisia .
in london , foreign minister william hague said in a phone interview .
the crackdown in libya has proven the bloodiest of the recent government actions , drawing criticism from the united states and european allies .
bahraini protesters celebrates at the pearl roundabout after the military pulled out in manama , bahrain , saturday , feb. 19 , 2011 .
in libya , yemen and algeria , the governments have quickly resorted to violence to crush unrest before it gathers momentum that might threaten their grip on power .
the deputy chief of bahrain 's armed forces has ordered the military to ... ( associated press ) bahraini protesters remove
advertisement continue reading the main story a day of antigovernment marches in yemen , the arab world ’s poorest country , took a violent turn as government supporters opened fire on a group opposing the 31 - year rule of president ali abdullah saleh , wounding at least four people .
the government response in libya underlined an unintended consequence of the success of uprisings in tunisia and egypt , where protests pouring into the streets day after day forced the departure of long - serving authoritarian leaders .