Cops fire teargas during teen protester’s funeral

REUTERS

File photo: Reuters

Bahrain - Clashes broke out on Saturday at the funeral of a teenager killed in demonstrations to mark the second anniversary of Bahrain's Shi’a-led uprising, with police firing tear gas to disperse mourners, witnesses said.

The security forces blocked access to the funeral of Hussein al-Jaziri in the Shi’a-populated village of Daih near the capital Manama, firing tear gas and stun grenades to disperse dozens of people trying to push their way through.

Jaziri died on Thursday after being shot in the stomach by security forces, according to Al-Wefaq, Bahrain's main Shi’a opposition bloc, during Shi’a-led protests against the kingdom's Sunni rulers, in which a policeman also died.

Earlier, the authorities said four people were arrested after an overnight attack on security forces that wounded four policemen.

The attack took place during unrest that began on Friday when protesters blocked a highway linking a string of Shi’a villages with the capital.

The interior ministry said in a statement that it had “arrested four terrorists possessing weapons with which they had fired on security forces in Karzakan,” a Shi’a village south-west of Manama.

A police officer and three policemen were taken to hospital after being wounded “by buckshot fired by a terrorist group,” police chief Tarek al-Hassan said in statement.

The security forces “had to respond to the attack to defend themselves,” Hassan added, without giving further details of the attack or the police response.

Bahrain has seen two years of political upheaval linked to opposition demands for a real constitutional monarchy, with the unrest claiming at least 80 lives, according to international rights groups.

Thursday's violence, in which Jazira and police officer Mohamed Atef were killed, began with demonstrations to coincide with the actual anniversary of the start of the uprising on February 14, 2011.

Clashes raged sporadically in Shi’a villages through the night and into the early hours of Friday.

The latest unrest comes amid a fresh round of a national dialogue between opposition groups and the government. - Sapa-AFP