Rabid Bahraini regime forces attack demos in solidarity with prisoners, martyrs

Regime forces in Bahrain have clashed with people protesting in solidarity with prisoners and martyrs in the run-up to the sixth anniversary of a popular uprising in the Arab country.

Bahraini policemen used tear gas and sound bombs to disperse demonstrators on Sitra Island on Friday.

Similar clashes were further reported in the Bahraini town of Bilad al-Qadim.

Mass anti-regime rallies also took place in the villages of Karbabad, Abu Saiba, Sanabis, Nuwaidrat, and Musalla.

Elsewhere, in the village Diraz, people held a sit-in outside the home of top Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim.

Qassim, the spiritual leader of Bahrain’s dissolved opposition bloc, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, was stripped of his nationality last June over accusations that he used his position to serve foreign interests and promote sectarianism and violence. The clergyman has denied the allegations.

Meanwhile, Bahrain forces raided houses in the village of Bani Jamrah and arrested three young people.

Separately on Friday, some 20 organizations and legal figures sent a letter to British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson expressing concerns about the punitive trials of prominent human rights campaigner Nabeel Rajab.

They also called on Johnson to press the Manama regime to release the campaigner.

Rajab, who was arrested last June, is accused of “spreading false news and rumors and inciting propaganda during wartime.” He denies the allegations.

Home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, Bahrain has been rocked by a wave of anti-regime demonstrations since February 2011, when the popular uprising began. Scores of people have been killed and hundreds of others wounded or detained amid Manama’s crackdown on dissent and widespread discrimination against the country’s Shia majority.