Hizbullah Hits Back at Bahrain over Bombings Accusations
Hizbullah on Wednesday condemned accusations by Bahrain which has claimed that the party was behind Monday's bombings in Manama, noting that the Bahraini regime perpetrated the incident in order to “repress the peaceful opposition.”
“The Bahraini authorities continue their episodes of false allegations and claims by launching unjust accusations against Hizbullah, the last of which was accusing the party of being behind the latest bombings that shook Bahrain,” the party's media department said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Bahrain's state news agency quoted State Minister for Information Affairs Samira Ibrahim bin Rajab as saying that “the bombings were carried out by terrorist groups that received training outside the country and are based in foreign countries, including Lebanon.”
The bombings “bear the hallmark of the Lebanese group Hizbullah which is allied with Iran,” the minister claimed.
But Hizbullah deplored any attempt to link its name to such blasts, noting that “these bombings carry the fingerprints of the Bahraini regime's intelligence services which will use them as an excuse to repress the peaceful opposition and dodge the rightful demands.”
Bahraini police have arrested four suspects in connection with bombings that killed two Asian expatriates in the capital Manama, the official BNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
The news agency did not elaborate on when or how the arrests were made.
"An investigation is under way to uncover the circumstances surrounding these terrorist crimes and identify the rest of the criminals and arrest them," BNA quoted public security chief Major-General Tareq al-Hassan as saying.
The report came hours after King Hamad ordered "the swift arrest of the terrorists who carried out the recent terrorist acts in Bahrain."
The king appealed to the public for help to "bring them to justice so they receive their punishment over this appalling act."
Five bomb blasts in the capital's Gudaibiya and Adliya districts killed two Asian expatriates and wounded a third on Monday, police said.
The bombings came amid persistent tensions between the kingdom's Shiite majority and its Sunni rulers since the bloody crushing of month-long pro-democracy protests in March last year.
The main Shiite opposition group Al-Wefaq condemned the attacks but cautioned that "due to the absence of independent human rights and media groups, it is difficult to clearly determine the truth behind the incidents."
Hizbullah has been a strong advocate for the popular protests in Bahrain that began in 2011.
Ties between Lebanon and Bahrain reached an all-time low last year when Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah slammed the violent crackdown on the protesters.
His remarks prompted the Bahraini authorities to suspend the flights of Gulf Air and Bahraini Air between Manama and Beirut for several months.
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