The call came as a fourth protester died of wounds sustained when troops and police moved on Wednesday to end weeks of unrest t

The call came as a fourth protester died of wounds sustained when troops and police moved on Wednesday to end weeks of unrest that prompted the king to declare martial law and call in troops from Bahrain's Sunni-ruled neighbor, Saudi Arabia.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Bahrain had the sovereign right to summon security help from its Gulf neighbors but stressed that the solution to the country's crisis could only come through political dialogue.

"We have made clear that security alone cannot resolve the challenges facing Bahrain," Clinton told reporters in Paris after meeting several Arab ministers. "Violence is not the answer, a political process is.

Bahrain's largest Shi'ite Muslim group, Wefaq, said the latest death brought the number of protesters killed since the start of the unrest last month to 11. Four police have also been killed this week, some of them mown down by protesters in cars.

Sunni-ruled Bahrain has since arrested at least nine opposition activists, including two doctors from Manama's largest public hospital, which remains surrounded by troops who check identities and carry out regular searches.

The ferocity of the crackdown, in which troops and police fanned out across Bahrain, imposed a curfew and banned all public gatherings and marches, has stunned Bahrain's Shi'ites and angered the region's non-Arab Shi'ite Muslim power, Iran.

Posted in: Bahrain's Sunni-ruled neighbor,Saudi Arabia.