Anti-government protests in Bahrain have been squashed but resentment of the Sunni monarchy simmers among the tiny Gulf kingdom's Shia majority, reports the BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner in the capital, Manama.

Bahrain is now under what is officially called a state of national security - imposed last month when the government's patience with protesters and their roadblocks snapped.

But it is martial law by any other name.

Police checkpoints are up all over the country, there are tanks stationed in the centre of the capital Manama, a curfew from midnight until early morning and more than 1,000 troops and police from neighbouring Arab Gulf states helping to guard vital installations.

That's fine by us, say many Bahrainis from the ruling Sunni minority, as well as expatriates.

They feel reassured, not threatened, by the checkpoints that have replaced the protesters' anarchic and intimidating roadblocks. But most Shia Muslims tell a different story.