Clashes in Bahrain after opposition arrests

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2007

MANAMA (AFP) — Authorities in Bahrain detained three opposition activists for agitating against the Sunni-led regime, prompting clashes with the security forces in the Shiite-majority Gulf state.

Security forces used tear-gas to disperse around 100 stone-throwing protestors in a mainly Shiite western suburb of the capital Manama, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

An interior ministry statement confirmed that three opposition activists had been detained for "advocating regime change by illegimate means" and for "incitement to hatred against the regime, counched in indecent language."

Prosecutors questioned the trio, ministry official Colonel Mohammed Rashed Bu Hamud said, and the public prosecutor's office later announced they had been released on probation....