Protesters, police clash after Washington criticizes Bahrain arrest
- 9 years ago
Protesters clash with police in Bahrain, in a suburb of the capital Manama.
They throw rocks and Molotov cocktails as police respond with teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
The violence broke out on the seventh straight day of demonstrations against the detention of a leading opposition figure.
He's Sheikh Ali Salman, the head of the al-Wefag Islamic Society.
He was arrested last Sunday after leading a protest rally against elections his party had boycotted.
His lawyers say he's been accused of inciting hatred against the regime and calling for its forceful overthrow.
But others charges, they say, are still not clear.
Washington, Bahrain's main ally, has criticized Sheikh Salman's detention, saying it only further inflames tensions.
Since 2011, sporadic protests have gripped the island Kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia, as majority Shi'ites demand democratic reform in this Sunni-led country.
They throw rocks and Molotov cocktails as police respond with teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
The violence broke out on the seventh straight day of demonstrations against the detention of a leading opposition figure.
He's Sheikh Ali Salman, the head of the al-Wefag Islamic Society.
He was arrested last Sunday after leading a protest rally against elections his party had boycotted.
His lawyers say he's been accused of inciting hatred against the regime and calling for its forceful overthrow.
But others charges, they say, are still not clear.
Washington, Bahrain's main ally, has criticized Sheikh Salman's detention, saying it only further inflames tensions.
Since 2011, sporadic protests have gripped the island Kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia, as majority Shi'ites demand democratic reform in this Sunni-led country.