Bahraini security forces shot dead a Shia teenager when a group of protesters attacked police with petrol bombs near the capital Manama, the interior ministry said yesterday.

A police unit stationed in a street in the Sunni-dominated Muharaq city “came under a terrorist attack with a large number of petrol bombs” late on Friday, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official BNA news agency.

It said security forces opened fire in self-defence, wounding one of the assailants who was taken to hospital where he died of his injuries.

The government identified the dead youth as 16-year-old Hussam al-Haddad.

“Terrorists launched petrol bombs at close range, forcing the police to take the necessary actions to defend themselves and innocent bystanders from the potentially lethal attack,” the Information Affairs Authority said in an e-mailed statement in English.

“Despite warning shots by the police the attack continued; so security personnel dealt with the case according to its legal authority,” it added, citing the police chief of Muharaq.

The main Shia opposition group, Wefaq, condemned the “barbaric” attack on the teenager.
Large crowds of men and women attended Haddad’s funeral yesterday afternoon, according to images posted on Wefaq’s Facebook page.

The opposition says more than 45 people have been killed in protests since June 2011, when the government lifted martial law it had imposed to help quash pro-democracy demonstrations by Shias. However, the interior ministry says protesters have injured more than 700 police officers in clashes and that the police, who do not use live fire, have been exercising restraint.

The protester’s death came as the US expressed concern over Bahrain’s jailing of a prominent opposition activist, Nabeel Rajab, for three years.

The US State Department said on Friday it was “deeply concerned” by the jailing of Rajab on charges of leading illegal gatherings.

“We have repeatedly urged the government of Bahrain to take steps to build confidence across Bahraini society, and to begin a meaningful dialogue with the political opposition and civil society. Excessive punishment for peaceful expression ... will not contribute to those efforts,” it said in a statement.

Bahraini Information Minister Samira Rajab said yesterday that the activist had been tried fairly and had enjoyed full access to legal aid.

On Tuesday, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifah said the country’s problems were caused by “foreign plots”, restating the government’s accusation that the uprising was instigated by Shia Iran, something that both Tehran and protesters deny.

However, he added that the government was “sparing no effort to solve” its internal problems and that Bahrain had become a country of democracy and human rights.

Tehran won’t reinstate ambassador

Iran will not reciprocate Bahrain’s decision to reinstate its ambassador, deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said in remarks published yesterday. “As long as the regime’s repression of the Bahraini people goes on, Iran will not take any decision to return its ambassador to Manama,” the website of Iran’s Arabic-language Al Alam television quoted Amir Abdollahian as saying. “The return of the Bahraini ambassador to Tehran was a decision of the Bahraini government.”

Bahrain announced last Sunday that it had returned its ambassador to Iran, after an absence of nearly 18 months amid a deep rift between the two governments over Shia-led pro-democracy protests that erupted in the kingdom in February last year. Manama recalled its ambassador from Tehran on March 15, 2011 in protest at what it said was Shia Iran’s “blatant interference” in its internal affairs. Tehran retaliated by recalling its envoy from Manama.