Thu Apr 10, 6:05 PM ET
A policeman was killed when his patrol was attacked with petrol bombs in a Bahraini village south of the capital Manama overnight, police said on Thursday.
“A security force patrol was attacked by masked people. A police officer was killed and others were lightly wounded,” the official news agency BNA quoted a police official as saying.
The official added that an inquiry had been launched into the incident which took place in a Shiite majority village.
Thu Apr 10, 6:05 PM ET
A policeman was killed when his patrol was attacked with petrol bombs in a Bahraini village south of the capital Manama overnight, police said on Thursday.
“A security force patrol was attacked by masked people. A police officer was killed and others were lightly wounded,” the official news agency BNA quoted a police official as saying.
The official added that an inquiry had been launched into the incident which took place in a Shiite majority village.
Bahraini Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa denounced the attack in an interview with local media, saying it marked a “serious and unjustifiable escalation” in tensions.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashed bin Abdullah al-Khalifa announced later Thursday that a number of people suspected of perpetrating “criminal acts” had been arrested, but he did not make clear if they included suspects in the policeman’s killing.
“A number of people accused of perpetrating criminal acts have been arrested and referred to the prosecution,” he said in a statement, adding that security forces were still chasing other suspects.
Anger has spilled out on to the streets of the tiny Gulf archipelago after demonstrations in December following the death of an opposition protester.
The Shiite majority in Sunni-ruled Bahrain has been campaigning for compensation for alleged human rights violations during the 1980s and 1990s.
But the main Shiite political formation issued a statement on Thursday denouncing the policeman’s murder.
“Deliberate killing … is unacceptable under any circumstances,” said the Islamic National Accord Association (INAA), which holds 17 seats in Bahrain’s 40-member parliament.
The policeman’s killing is a “suspicious” act with questionable motives, and security authorities should be careful not to respond with “collective punishments,” the opposition group added.
At least 38 people died in Shiite-led protests in Bahrain, a close US ally, between 1994 and 1999.
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