U.S. State Department Travel Alert for Bahrain

This week, the State Department issued a new travel alert recommending against travel to Bahrain due to spontaneous and occasionally violent anti-government demonstrations which have blockaded highways, set trash on fire, and established non official checkpoints. Participants in these demonstrations have thrown a number of homemade weapons and the Ministry of Interior is known to use tear gas, stun grenades and other crowd control measures.

These violent clashes between the security forces and demonstrators have made travel in and around Bahrain dangerous without much prior warning. The U.S. embassy currently restricts employees from traveling to specific areas and continues to advise U.S. citizens to do the same. Current demonstration notices indicate where the latest problem areas can be found as well as mapping the recommended areas of travel.

At this time, there are no indications that westerners are specifically being targeted, but U.S. flags have been burned at some demonstrations.

Read the complete travel alert for Bahrain.

This travel alert supersedes the travel alert for Bahrain in November.