Shia mosque attacked by police in Bahrain

Published March 24th, 2014 - 09:32 GMT
Bahrain has been in the grips of an uprising since 2011. (AFP/File)
Bahrain has been in the grips of an uprising since 2011. (AFP/File)

Regime forces in Bahrain have attacked a Shia mosque in a village near the capital, Manama, as the ruling Al-Khalifa continues its attempts to silence the opposition, Press TV reports.

Bahraini forces fired tear gas at people attending a funeral ceremony inside a mosque in the village of Sanabis.

It was not immediately clear why security forces stormed the mosque.

Bahrain’s main opposition party al-Wefaq strongly condemned the incident, saying this is the second such attack this month.

In February, the regime forces also attacked a mosque in the village of Sa’ar near Manama.

Dozens of mosques have been demolished in Bahrain since the start of anti-monarchy rallies in 2011.

Almost daily protests have been held against the Al Khalifa regime since February 2011, when thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets, calling for the royal family to leave power.

On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on peaceful protesters.

According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested since the start of the uprising.

Last month, Amnesty International censured Bahrain’s “relentless repression” of anti-regime protesters, saying the security forces “repeatedly” use “excessive force to quash anti-government protests.”

On February 14, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also called on Manama to respect its “international human rights obligations” in dealing with peaceful protests in the country.

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