Bahraini protesters battled with riot police near Manama on Friday after the funeral of a woman whose family said she died after tear gas entered her home twice in the past week.
A UN rights body this week expressed concern over the use of excessive force and tear gas by Bahraini security forces.
Police moved in with water cannon and armored vehicles to break up hundreds of protesters as they approached a checkpoint near “Pearl Roundabout,” hub of pro-democracy protests last year led by majority Shiite Muslims complaining of marginalization.
Photo: AFP
The wind carried some of the tear gas away, allowing youths to lob Molotov cocktails at close range at the vehicles, scoring direct hits. The water cannon fired hot water during the clashes in the district of Jidhafs on the edge of the capital.
The protesters carried banners in the name of the February 14 Youth Coalition, a movement formed since last year’s uprising that says it wants the overthrow of the Al Khalifa family that dominates Bahrain’s government and economy.
Police later brought in reinforcements of at least several hundred riot police with batons and shields who fired tear gas into the neighborhood as youths taunted them from a distance, sometimes grabbing the tear gas canisters and hurling them back.
“Come and fight hand to hand, you cowards, you animals!” one teenager shouted before throwing a rock at police, a mainly Sunni force that employs many foreigners.
Police fired back, engulfing a vegetable market in tear gas.
Earlier, residents buried the body of 59-year-old Abda Ali AbdulHussein, who died overnight after her home was teargassed, her son Ali said at the graveyard.
“I consider her a victim of the clashes,” he said, adding she had been discharged from hospital this week still suffering lung inflammation after tear gas entered her home a week ago.
“She collapsed in the bathroom. We called a military hospital nearby for an ambulance, but they didn’t have any free. By the time one came from the main public hospital she had died,” he said, adding that his mother had been diabetic.
The UN High Commission for Human Rights said this week it wanted to investigate possible disproportionate use of force against demonstrators in Bahrain, citing excessive use of tear gas and a rising death toll.
Activists say at least 33 people have died since June last year amid daily clashes in Shiite districts, as the government tries to lock protesters in to stop any renewed mass movement in Manama.
Police question the causes of death and their attribution to the political conflict. They say they are showing restraint in the face of violent youth challenging state authority.
Friday’s clashes erupted during a series of 10 licensed protests organized by the Gulf Arab state’s official opposition parties, led by the Shiite Wefaq group.
There were clashes at some other protests and youths pulled down a lamppost thought to carry a security camera facing a popular coffee shop in the Budaiya district. A police statement said Wefaq leaders would be questioned over the incidents.
The youth coalition protesters broke away from one of those official protests, ignoring Wefaq organizers in orange vests with Wefaq logos who were directing traffic.
“This protest is for bringing down the regime. This one’s for fighting,” one man said as he ran down the street to join the group marching toward Pearl Roundabout, which has been under heavy guard and closed to traffic for a year.
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