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A soldier from the Gulf Cooperation Council forces guards the entrance to Pearl Square from his armoured personnel carrier in Manama. An image of Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa is seen on the front of the vehicle.

Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa said a foreign plot against his kingdom had been foiled and thanked troops brought in from neighbouring countries to help end increasing unrest after weeks of protests.

"An external plot has been fomented for 20 to 30 years until the ground was ripe for subversive designs ... I here announce the failure of the fomented plot," the state news agency BNA quoted him overnight as telling troops.

King Hamad told the forces that such if such a plot succeeded in one Gulf Arab country, it could spill into neighbouring states, BNA said.

The ferocity of a crackdown last week by Bahrain forces, aided by the entrance of troops from Sunni-ruled Gulf countries, stunned Bahrain's majority Shiites, the main force of the protests, and angered the region's non-Arab Shiite power Iran.

Iran, which supports Shiite groups in Iraq and Lebanon, has complained to the United Nations and asked neighbours to join it in urging Saudi Arabia to withdraw forces from Bahrain.

King Hamad's announcement came after a day of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions between the Gulf island kingdom and Iran.

In a sign of rising tensions between the countries, Bahrain expelled Iran's charge d'affaires on Sunday, accusing him of contacts with some opposition groups, a diplomatic source said.

He left shortly after the Iranian ambassador, asked to leave last week. Iran expelled a Bahraini diplomat in response.

Bahrain has also said previously that it arrested opposition leaders for dealing with foreign countries.

More than 60 per cent of Bahrainis are Shiites, and most are campaigning for a constitutional monarchy, but calls by hardliners for the overthrow of the monarchy have alarmed Sunnis, who fear the unrest serves Iran, separated from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain by only a short stretch of Gulf waters.

Bahrain complained to Arabsat on Sunday over "abuse and incitement" on Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam television, Hezbollah's Al-Manar and Shiite channel Ahlulbayt, which are all carried by the broadcaster, state news agency BNA said.

Bahrain's political crisis has been the subject of a media war between pro-Iranian channels and Bahraini state television. Both have accused each other of incitement.

Bahrain also condemned a protest outside the Saudi consulate in Tehran, after reports on Saturday that some 700 demonstrators broke windows and raised a Bahraini flag over the gate.

An uneasy calm has spread through the city as most Bahrainis begin to return to work and there were fewer checkpoints in the streets, though helicopters still buzz over Shiite areas.

Shaking their fists and shouting "Down with Al Khalifa", about 2,000 people joined the fourth funeral procession in as many days on Monday.

Waving black and Bahraini flags, mourners gathered in the Shiite village of Buri, to bury 38-year-old father-of-three Abdulrusul Hajair, who went missing in recent days and was found on Sunday, apparently beaten to death.

Bahrain's largest Shiite opposition group, Wefaq, said police told Mr. Hajair's family on Sunday to collect his body from hospital.

Speaking at a 15-minute protest in front of the United Nations building in Manama on Sunday, a former Wefaq parliament member said almost 100 people had gone missing in the crackdown.

"We don't know anything about them, we've asked hospital and ministry authorities and none of them are telling us anything about them," said Hadi al-Moussawi, one of around 21 former Wefaq MPs carrying Bahraini flags and calling on the UN to help ensure rescue medical services were working in Bahrain.

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