One of the most widespread protests in months, Bahrain buying weapons from Russia and other updates

27 August 2011

On night of 26/27 August, the security forces have heavily attacked numerous areas in Bahrain where there were protests, starting with the weekly “rally for self-determination” and we have received news of injuries:
A protester in Duraz got shot in the eye with rubber bullet
Another protester injured in the head in Sitra.

The riot police, according to many of the injuries reported in the past several weeks, are clearly targeting the head and upper body of the protesters.

27 August 2011

On night of 26/27 August, the security forces have heavily attacked numerous areas in Bahrain where there were protests, starting with the weekly “rally for self-determination” and we have received news of injuries:
A protester in Duraz got shot in the eye with rubber bullet
Another protester injured in the head in Sitra.

The riot police, according to many of the injuries reported in the past several weeks, are clearly targeting the head and upper body of the protesters. The riot police are extensively shooting teargas into people’s homes and this is a picture of a child who was subjected to the teargas.

According to our sources on the streets, alongside the regular teargas the riot police are using a strange looking teargas which is much more powerful and affects the nerves.

So far we know that two boys, 15 and 18 were arrested on that night.

What one person collected inside their home: tear gas collection

A house in Noaim caught fire due to the teargas being shot directly at peoples homes. This is not the first instance of homes burning due to teargas attacks.

With the rising sectarian tension in the country, and especially with people like Adel Fulaifal, former torturer and right hand to Ian Henderson, and Mohammed Khalid, former member of Parliament, calling for violence; the news of Bahrain buying Ak103 Kalashnikovs and grenade launchers from Russia is very disturbing.

There has been news about forming armed “protection units” with Adel Fulaifel in charge of training them in the local media, and this raises concern about a drastic increase in violence we may witness in Bahrain. Adel Fulaifal has been on Twitter for some time, where he writes against the Shiaa, and calls for violence. In one instance he wrote: (translated) AlMuharraq is nothing but an island and soon the corpses of Wali AlFaqih and all his followers will float (in its waters). To read his account: (Arabic) @ADEL_FELAIFIL

The appeal hearing of the 21 prominent figures has been changed from the 9th of September to the 6th.

Zainab Al-Khawaja visited her husband in prison and here is her account of the visit about the torture and his trial amongst others is at the bottom of this email.

As copied from Twitter:
“Visited my husband Wafi a couple of hrs ago at Dry Dock prison, he told me about what happened in court & the charges against him. The charges against Wafi are 8 or 9, among them: participating in illegal gatherings in many places including at the roundabout. Another one of the charges against my husband is: writing msgs that spread hatred against the regime The one Wafi laughed about was “حرض على الصمود والثبات” These are the exact words, they even asked him if he did it. Among the charges against Wafi: asking ppl to go on strikes and spreading information about civil disobedience. There are 13 ppl in the same case as Wafi & with similar charges: Isa Ahmed Thaani Khamis, Hameed Abbas Abdulwahad Al-Saafi, Ali Hassan Salman Hassan Al-Sitri, Jaffar Hassan Salman Hassan Al-Sitrim Abdulla Hassan Abdulla Al-Saif, Mohd Ali Ebrahim Aal-Hmaid Mohammed Hassan Yousef Saif, Hussain Abdullah Yousef, Hussain Ramadan Mohammed, Hamza Hassan Alhawaj, Abdulwahab Nasser Kadhum The 13th person is Canadian citizen. Wafi told us today about when he was detained underground at fort. He was tortured so badly he coudnt stand for days. He had to crawl Wafi said he urinated blood for weeks, and was hospitalized for 4 days after severe torture He says those 4 days in the hospital, every night at 12 police would come in throw them of their beds and beat them badly He said he was electrocuted not only at the fort but also when he was brought to Dry Dock Even tho Wafi hadnt told us much be4 abt being subjected to torture, we assumed that he had been. Most if not all prisoners are”