Bahrain mosque blast suspects charged

Photos of the three suspects are shown during a news briefing by police chief Tarik al-Hassan in Manama yesterday.

AFP/ManamaBahrain’s prosecutor yesterday charged three men arrested in connection with a car bombing outside a Sunni mosque with forming a “terror” group, the official BNA news agency reported. Police chief Tariq al-Hasan named the suspects as Hasan al-Madhum, 25, Ali Ashoor, 34, and Abbas Zuhair, 32, and said that other suspects were on the run. Public prosecutor Abdulrahman al-Sayyed said in a statement carried by BNA that he charged the men with forming an illegal group that “used terror among its means”. Authorities said on Sunday that three suspects were arrested over the “terrorist” blast outside Sheikh Isa bin Salman mosque in the Sunni Rifaa area, south of the capital. The royal court is situated in the same area where the bomb, made from two gas cylinders, exploded late on Wednesday without causing casualties. The bomb attack drew condemnation from the authorities as well as from the Shia-led opposition. The latest bombing came amid an escalation in attacks on police in Shia villages, using homemade explosive devices and petrol bombs, according to authorities. Protests remain frequent in Shia villages despite a March 2011 crackdown. At least 80 people have been killed in Bahrain since the protests erupted, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.