Naharnet

Bahrain Police, Protesters Clash Near Capital

Bahrain's police fired tear gas and used sound bombs to disperse hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday in a Shiite village near the capital, witnesses said.

They said the incident took place at a road junction in Sanabis following the funeral of a 15-year-old youth.

He died earlier the same day in hospital of burns he had suffered during an attack Friday "by a group of saboteurs on a construction firm's warehouse," according to the interior ministry.

The protesters chanted anti-regime slogans.

A Shiite-led uprising to demand democratic reforms in Sunni-ruled but Shiite-majority Bahrain was crushed in March 2011.

King Hamad in August this year ordered stiffer penalties for "terror acts," including a minimum 10-year jail term for an attempted bombing. If such attacks cause casualties, the sentence can be life imprisonment or death.

The authorities have also banned demonstrations in the capital Manama.

At least 89 people have been killed since the protests began, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.

Source: Agence France Presse


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