Siun already gave the report on the middle-of-the-night assault on protesters in Bahrain, which killed at least four. Because we don’t have tourists who go over to Bahrain to see pyramids, US media may be less connected to this particular Arab uprising. But this brazen attack, in the presence of traditional media members, could raise the profile. Here’s ABC’s Miguel Marquez:

In an audio clip of the attack, which was posted on the ABC News Web site, Mr. Marquez can be heard pleading with his attackers — “No! No! No! Hey, I’m a journalist here!” — and then retreating from the square, where he said the police were aggressively trying to clear the crowds.

“I’m hit,” he says anxiously. “I just got beat rather badly by a gang of thugs. I’m now in a marketplace near our hotel where people are cowering in buildings.’

“I mean, these people are not screwing around,” he adds. “They’re going to clear that square tonight, ahead of any protest on Friday. The government clearly does not want this to get any bigger.”

And NPR’s Peter Kenyon:

Steve, I’m at the Salmaniya hospital, where many of the wounded and dead were brought initially. I have to say, uh, I have just seen one of the more gruesome sites in 10 years of covering the Middle East. I was in the mortuary. I saw a man lying on a gurney. The top of his head was literally blown off.

The injuries have been widespread — clubbing and some shot and rubber-bullet injuries. Paramedics who were trying to get to the scene told me they were pulled from their ambulances and dragged to the ground and beaten.

It’s … it’s been a scene, kind of. It’s a bit quiet at the moment, I have to say, but just moments ago, this compound in the hospital was filled with screaming people. The grief is turning to anger very rapidly here.

And Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times:

@NickKristof King Hamad of #Bahrain will never regain credibility after attacking peaceful protesters as they slept. Blood is forever on his hands.

In addition to simply documenting the abuse and murder, perhaps these reporters can contextualize Bahrain. Because there’s a lot to say on that front. Juan Cole has an excellent rundown.

1. Bahrain is a major center for the refining of crude petroleum, refining some 270,000 barrels a day. This amount is not large, but given tight petroleum supplies and a price of over $100 a barrel for Brent Crude, an outage there would certainly put up world prices.

2. Bahrain hosts a naval base for the US Fifth Fleet, important to the US security architecture for the Persian Gulf (the Arabs say Arabian Gulf). Nearly 2/3s of the world’s proven petroleum reserves and 45% of the world’s natural gas reserves are in the Gulf region.

3. Bahrain is an important finance center.

Bahrain actually has a Shiite majority, and if they gain control, they would almost certainly seek closure of that naval base. And it would have good relations, though not as warm as some would expect, with Tehran. The Sunni Bahraini king stands between the country and the Shiite majority. That’s why you haven’t heard much out of the President over Bahrain. They want to keep the military asset. Today, the State Department expressed “deep concern” over the massacre, but gave few details.

A bit more here:

Bahrain has a little over 1.2 million people, of whom 54 percent are expatriate guest workers, nearly half of them from India. I can remember, on the occasions I was in Manama, the way signs in Malayalam festooned the market and the money-changer stalls. The other 568,000 are Bahrainis. Of these, social scientists think about two-thirds, or about 374,000, are Shiites. In turn, about 100,000 of these are Ajamis, i.e. Shiites of Iranian heritage who are now Arabs. The rest are Baharna or indigenous Bahraini Shiites, who mainly adhere to the conservative Akhbari school that does not believe in following ayatollahs. Many of them live in rural villages outside the capital.

The other 187,000 or so are Sunni Bahrainis, the community to which King Hamad Al Khalifah belongs. He has reigned as king since 2002 (having come to power as emir in 1999) [...]

So, in a country where citizens are probably two-thirds Shiite, Shiites have little representation in the senate and are a minority even in the elected lower house. Not only can the Sunni-dominated upper house veto measures passed by the lower house, but the king himself can veto legislation at will and can prorogue parliament whenever he likes.

Many Shiites in rural areas are poor, despite Bahrain’s riches, derived from its small petroleum industry, its vital finance sector, and strategic rent from the US for the US naval base for the Fifth Fleet. Wifaq not only seeks more equitable representation for the Shiite majority but also a better economic deal for the poor.

This gets mixed up with the entire Sunni-Shiite power balance in the Middle East, the proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. And it leads to silence when a king tries to massacre peaceful protesters while they sleep.

Or, if you want to be polite, you can call it a diplomatic puzzle.