Bahrain police officer killed in ‘terrorist’ bombing

A Bahraini police officer was killed in a “terrorist” bombing that took place in a village south of the capital Manama, an interior ministry official announced Saturday.

Officer Mahmud Farid died Saturday of wounds sustained in the blast, which occurred the day before in the village of East Ekar, according to public security chief Maj. Gen. Tariq al-Hassan.

“Police officer Mahmud Farid died Saturday before dawn from wounds sustained in a terrorist explosion at East Ekar," Ma. Gen. Hassan said.

An investigation has been opened to identify and arrest those behind the attack, he added without giving further details.

Attacks on security forces have been on the rise in Bahrain in recent months, with three police officers, one from the United Arab Emirates, killed in a bomb attack in a Shiite-populated town on March 3.

Another officer died on February 15, also by a bomb blast, in a Shiite village during protests marking the third anniversary of Shiite-led demonstrations, taking their cue from Arab Spring uprisings elsewhere in the region and demanding democratic reforms in the absolute monarchy.

Security forces boosted by Saudi-led troops ended the protests a month later, but smaller demonstrations frequently take place in Shiite villages, triggering clashes with police.

Bahrain is a small, Western-allied island kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia that is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. It continues to face low-level unrest more than three years after a Shiite-dominated opposition movement inspired by the Arab Spring protests took to the streets to demand greater political rights from the Sunni monarchy, according to Associated Press.

Some radical anti-government activists occasionally carry out relatively small bomb attacks against police, sometimes with deadly effect.

[With AP and AFP]