A Bahraini police raid on the hometown of a prominent Shiite cleric facing possible deportation has left at least five demonstrators dead and 286 people arrested after officers fired tear gas and shotguns at protesters.
The Bahraini Ministry of the Interior said that the operation on Tuesday targeting Diraz, home to Sheikh Isa Qassim and a long-running sit-in supporting him, was to “maintain security and public order.”
It said the area was a “haven for wanted fugitives from justice.”
People shared photographs and videos showing young people throwing stones and climbing on an armored personnel carrier.
Gunfire could be heard in one video as white smoke from tear gas hung in the air.
Another video showed a bulldozer smashing through the area that once hosted the sit-in.
Police arrested 286 people, including “terrorists and convicted felons” who hid inside of Qassim’s home, the ministry said.
It said that 19 members of the security forces were wounded in the raid, during which protesters threw gasoline bombs.
“Forces were able to remove a series of illegal road blocks and barricades,” the ministry said in a statement. “Police remain deployed in the area to ensure the safety of people.”
Amnesty International later said Qassim was not arrested.
At least five protesters were killed, activists and police said.
Activists shared images of other protesters with what appeared to be birdshot wounds.
The operation followed a court decision on Sunday giving Qassim a year’s suspended prison sentence, and seizing assets belonging to him and his ministry.
Two of his aides received similar sentences.
Police have besieged Qassim’s hometown of Diraz for months, tightly controlling access. He could be deported at any time after authorities stripped him of his citizenship in June last year over accusations that he fueled extremism.
His supporters deny the allegations and called his trial politically motivated.
Shiites and others took part in 2011 Arab Spring protests for greater rights from the Sunni monarchy of Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet and an under-construction British naval base.
Bahrain put down the protests with the help of forces from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Since then, Bahrain has seen low-level unrest.
However, a year-long government crackdown on dissent has raised the stakes, with local Shiite militant groups claiming some attacks.
Bahrain long has accused Iran of aiding militants, something the Shiite power denies.
Meanwhile, activists have been imprisoned or forced into exile.
Independent news gathering in the nation has also grown more difficult, with the government refusing to accredit journalists.
Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa met with US President Donald Trump during a summit in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Already, Trump’s administration had approved a multibillion-dollar sale of F-16 jets to Bahrain without the human rights conditions imposed by the US Department of State under former US president Barack Obama.
“Our countries have a wonderful relationship together, but there has been a little strain, but there won’t be strain with this administration,” Trump said on Sunday.
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affiars Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday tweeted that the raid showed the “first concrete result of POTUS [Trump] cozying up to despots in Riyadh.”
The Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah warned that any harm to Qassim would “open the doors for unpredictable outcome and dangers.”
Activists and rights groups said that Trump’s embrace of Bahrain only would fuel the crackdown.
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