(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A Reuters correspondent saw police dispersing the demonstrators, who had approached a barbed wire fence erected the night before on the outskirts of the village of Shakhoora, west of the capital Manama, following calls by activists for mass anti-government protests.
Bahrain had tightened security around some restive villages to try to prevent planned anti-government protests.
According to witnesses, violent clashes broke out between Bahraini protesters and the regime forces in the village of Shakhoora, located west of Manama, as well as several other towns.
During the gathering, Bahraini protesters chanted slogans against the ruling al-Khalifa regime amid tight security.
The witnesses said riot police charged into the crowd, firing birdshot and tear gas. Some people were overcome by tear gas, with no reports of casualties.
Meanwhile, hundreds marched peacefully in the village of Saar west of the capital Manama in the morning, waving Bahraini flags and chanting anti-government slogans, Reuters witnesses said.
Activists had called on social media for people to meet near the US embassy, saying they would try to force the ruling family to allow more democracy in the country of 1.25 million.
Bahrain's security forces remain loyal to a government that vowed on Monday to "forcefully confront" demonstrators and prosecute those responsible for "incitement."
The Interior Ministry reported that an Asian worker was injured by a firebomb as he tried to open a road blocked by protesters in a village south of Manama, and said burning tires had been used to block a main road in Muharraq, northeast of the capital.
"I know that it is going to be a peaceful movement but, having said that, I also expect clashes between the government forces and the protesters, because they are against all protests and demonstrations," al-Wefaq leader Sheikh Ali Salman told Reuters.
Al-Wefaq said in a report on its website late on Tuesday that security forces had ringed some areas with barbed wire and blocked some streets with concrete barriers.
On Tuesday night, Bahrain deployed extra forces in areas where there has been regular protests over the past two years. In some villages, all shops were closed. In Manama, where the government has banned protests, there was a bigger police presence than usual. In the Bab al-Bahrain commercial district police in riot gear sat in a parked bus.
Security forces were also monitoring traffic on roads leading into the capital, occasionally stopping vehicles to check identity papers.
The new push for a "free and democratic Bahrain" is being driven by "Tamarrod" [Rebellion], a loose association of opposition activists who came together in early July, according to social media quoting the group.
This is named after the Egyptian movement that staged protests against Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood before the military removed the country's first freely-elected president.
"I don't see where the problem is, why we are not allowed to ask for our demands and needs in peaceful demonstrations," a 24-year-old secretary, who asked not to be named, said.
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