Agencies

Manama

Bahraini authorities arrested a US national and another individual accused of “attacking” police in a village, as a bomb blast yesterday wounded two policemen in another town.

Villages around the capital have seen frequent protests against the government since the crushing of a 2011 uprising, with the demonstrations often igniting clashes with security forces.

The two Bahraini suspects, one of whom holds a US passport, were arrested on Monday after they allegedly “demonstrated and attacked a police patrol using Molotov cocktails and iron bars” in the village of Maameer, the public prosecutor said in a statement.

One of them had “a petrol bomb and a bullet-proof vest in his possession,” it added.

They were charged with “taking part in an unauthorised protest, rioting, and possessing petrol bombs,” said the statement.

The lawyer of the suspect carrying a US passport has demanded his release, the statement said, however both “were jailed on remand.”

The interior ministry meanwhile announced on Twitter that two on-duty policemen were wounded when a homemade bomb exploded in a “terrorist act” in East Ekar, without providing further details.

The interior ministry said that investigators were at the scene of the explosion in al-Eker south of Manama.

On March 3, three policemen, including one from the United Arab Emirates, died when what the authorities say was a remote-controlled bomb exploded during a mourning procession for a 23-year-old man who died in custody on February 26.

The ministry has said the blast occurred as police were trying to disperse protesters who were blocking roads in the village of Daih, west of the capital. Four people have been arrested in connection to the Daih bombing.

Mainstream opposition groups, including the al-Wefaq movement, have condemned the bombing and called on their followers to ensure that protest activities remain peaceful.

The village of al-Eker was the scene of a bomb blast and riots that killed a policeman in 2012, the first to die after the lifting of martial law in the country in June 2011.