Two Narratives to Explain Unrest in One Bahraini Village Video posted online by opposition activists in Bahrain, said to show that a village near the capital is under siege by the security forces. A village southeast of Bahrain's capital surrounded by checkpoints has become a focus of the ongoing struggle between the government and opposition activists. In the village of Eker, activists say students are being kept from school, closing shops and roads are blocked. The government calls the security measures necessary following an attack last week in which, the authorities say, a police officer was killed and another injured. According to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, security forces are imposing a curfew on the village and the cordon is making it difficult to get ambulances, medical supplies and food through. Both sides have turned to social media to document what they say is the reality of a situation being grossly distorted by their opponents. On Monday, when more than 200 protesters tried to break through the security cordon, the security forces fired tear gas, according to an Associated Press photographer and Said Yousif al-Muhafdah of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Opposition activists shared photographs and video online, showing what they said were heavy-handed tactics employed by the security forces against a group of women who had attempted to bring food and medicine into the village. Video posted online Monday by opposition activists in Bahrain, showing women being chased by the security forces near a village outside the capital. What exactly took place last week in Eker remains a subject of contention between supporters of the government and opposition activists, with each side wary of accepting the version of events put forward by their political opponents in the divided kingdom. According to a government statement, on Friday at 1 a.m., a 19-year-old police officer, Imran Ahmed, was killed in an attack during a routine patrol in Eker. A second police officer was critically wounded. Seven people were arrested in connection with the attack, which was described as a bombing in the government statement. The state information ministry released video with its statement, showing what it described as Eker in the immediate aftermath of the attack. A video report from Bahrain's state news agency showed the aftermath of what was described as an attack on police officers early on Friday. On Saturday, the government said the police put up checkpoints to search for suspects. "There has been no attempt to stop people from going about their business, attending work or school, shopping for supplies or seeking medical treatment, as exaggerated reports on social media suggest," a government spokesman said. Activists have described the security measures as a siege and suggested that the government's shifting accounts of the nature of the attack cast doubt on the official version of events. Bahrain's information ministry, which has frequently cast the crackdown on demonstrations as necessary to maintain an orderly flow of traffic in the kingdom, also posted video online showing cars and trucks passing through the checkpoints on Sunday. Video posted online by Bahrain's information ministry to document traffic flow through checkpoints around Eker. Three activists were briefly detained on Sunday when they tried to enter the village. The participants in the small protest march taken into custody included Mr. Muhafdah, the rights activist, and Zainab al-Khawaja, whose father Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, founder of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was jailed last year for his role in the protest movement. After their release, opposition activists countered government accounts of the standoff by pointing to photographs and video they posted online of the three protesters walking beside the road, out of the way of traffic, before their arrest. As The Lede has reported previously, Ms. Khawaja, who charts the protest movement in Bahrain on her popular @AngryArabiya Twitter feed, has been detained on several occasions since the uprising began, for protesting her father's detention and the continued rule of the country's monarchy. Last December, when she was dragged from a traffic circle in the capital, Manama, video of her arrest seemed to show her being punched by a police officer. Last week, Ms. Khawaja called in video posted online for protesters to tear up pictures of Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa. Video of protesters in Bahrain tearing up pictures of the country's king. Although opposition activists are getting their messages out of Bahrain through the Web, the standoff is a reminder, on the eve of a presidential debate in the United States, of uncomfortable questions about American support for Bahrain's monarchy in a region where entrenched autocracies are under threat from popular uprisings. As our colleague David Kirkpatrick noted in an analysis of the Arab uprisings and the U.S. election, "Neither candidate has fully squared the potential conflicts of American values and interests, a problem most acute in the case of Bahrain. Its Sunni Muslim monarch used brutal force to crush a democracy movement among the Shiite majority, but the island kingdom is also home to the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet and a crucial bulwark against Iranian influence.