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| Arabia |
| Youth Killed in Clashes on Bahrain Uprising Anniversary |
| 2013-02-15 |
| [An Nahar] A teenager was rubbed out near Bahrain's capital on Thursday as festivities erupted when hundreds erupted into the streets to mark the second anniversary of a Shiite-led uprising against the kingdom's Sunni rulers. The demonstrations, staged early morning in Shiite-populated villages across the Gulf archipelago, turned violent when police fired shotguns and tear gas to disperse the crowds, wounding several people, witnesses said. Protesters, chanting "Down Hamad" in reference to the king, responded by hurling petrol bombs at the security forces, they said, and a 16-year-old boy was shot and killed during the confrontation, according to the opposition. On the eve of the anniversary, the opposition held a new round of reconciliation talks with the government and its supporters, although there was still no sign of a breakthrough. The opposition identified the slain teenager as Hussein al-Jaziri, saying he had been killed in the Shiite-populated village of Daih near the capital Manama. Jaziri was "maimed by a shotgun that regime forces fired... He was severely maimed in his stomach and died at the hospital," said al-Wefaq, the main Shiite opposition bloc. The interior ministry said that "a maimed person who was brought to al-Salmaniya hospital was pronounced dead." Opposition groups had called for strikes and nationwide protests on Thursday and Friday to mark the Arab Spring-inspired uprising that began on February 14, 2011 and was crushed by the security forces about a month later. Public security chief Major-General Tariq al-Hassan had warned late on Wednesday that "those who engage in any type of illegal behavior will be dealt with swiftly". But demonstrations took off in the villages of Barbar, Bilad al-Qadim, and Sitra where protesters waving Bahraini flags chanted: "The people want to overthrow the regime". |
| Posted by:Fred |