July 15, 2013
Bahraini MP’s home firebombed
The prime minister has ordered security forces to find the attackers
Assailants attacked the home of a Bahraini member of parliament with petrol bombs on Monday, the state news agency BNA said, the latest in a series of assaults on public officials and security personnel in the kingdom.
No one was hurt in the dawn attack on the home of Abbas Eisa Al Madi, chairman of parliament’s Services Committee. Pictures published by BNA showed fire damage to the main gate and a garage door.
The island has been buffeted by political turmoil since 2011, when opposition protesters took to the streets calling for democratic reforms and more say in government.
Although authorities have largely quelled the revolt, small-scale clashes and protests erupt almost daily in the kingdom.
National reconciliation talks between the government and opposition parties have made little progress since they began in February.
Instead, residents point to an increase in the use of homemade bombs, including fire bombs, in recent months against security forces and sometimes public officials.
Earlier this month, a homemade bomb killed one policeman in Sitra, a town near the capital Manama.
Last Saturday, a homemade bomb injured four policemen in the village of Janabiya, in northwestern Bahrain.
Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa condemned Monday’s attack on Madi’s house and ordered security forces to find the attackers, BNA said.
“Vandalism has never been a path to reform and terrorism and suppression of the opposite opinion has never been a path to democracy,” he said.
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/bahrain/bahraini-mp-s-home-firebombed-1.1209478
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July 16, 2013
Suspects in arson attack on Bahrain official’s home arrested
Attack on lawmaker’s home in Bahrain condemned
Three people suspected of attacking the home of a Bahraini lawmaker with petrol bombs have been arrested, the police said.
No one was hurt in the Monday dawn attack on the home of Abbas Eisa Al Madhi, the chairman of parliament’s Services Committee, in the coastal village of Dair in Muharraq, the country’s second largest island.
However, a car stationed near the house and the main gate and the garage door were damaged in the 4:15am assault, the latest on public figures and security personnel in the kingdom rocked by months of unrest.
“We are looking for the other suspects involved in the attack,” the head of the Muharraq police said.
Prime Minister Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa said the attack was “an assault on democracy.”
“It reveals the ugly face of those who make false claims for democracy while they use violence and terror to suppress all voices opposed to them,” Prince Khalifa said, quoted by Bahrain News Agency (BNA). “The government utterly condemns the attack and will apply the law against its perpetrators. Violence is rejected at the popular and official levels, particularly that targeting the members of the constitutional institutions amounts to targeting the state and this cannot tolerated,” he said.
Acts of sabotage cannot lead to reforms while terror and violence do not take to democracy, he said.
The lower chamber of the bicameral parliament and the Shura Council, the upper chamber, condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with Al Madhi.
Suspects in arson attack on Bahrain official
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July 17, 2013
The company entrance set on fire
Bahrain office set ablaze in arson attack
Police pledge full investigation to arrest assailants
A group of people set a company office ablaze and exploded two gas cylinders inside it, Bahrain police said on Wednesday.
“The police were informed at 3.14am about the incident and an investigation team was dispatched to the company premises in the Budaya area,” the interior ministry said on its Twitter account. “Most of the company offices were damaged in the arson attack. The police have launched an investigation to identify the terrorists and bring them to justice,” the ministry said.
The attack west of the capital Manama was the latest in a recent series of assaults on public figures and security personnel in the kingdom rocked by months of unrest and marked by deep divergences over the merit and purpose of the events that occurred in February and March 2011.
On Monday, there was a petrol bomb attack on the home of MP Abbas Eisa Al Madhi, the chairman of parliament’s Services Committee, in the coastal village of Dair in Muharraq, the country’s second largest island.
No was hurt in the 4.15am assault, but a car stationed near the house and the main gate and the garage door were damaged.
The police said that three people suspected of the attack with petrol bombs have been arrested.
The parliament has condemned the attack while the government said that it was an assault on democracy.
Bahrain office set ablaze in arson attack | GulfNews.com
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July 18, 2013
The car used in the explosion at a mosque parking area
The car used in the explosion at a mosque parking area
Bahrain rattled by bombing near royal palaces
Explosion at Shaikh Eisa Bin Salman Mosque in Riffa prompts widespread condemnation
A booby-trapped car which exploded in a mosque parking area near the royal residences has rattled Bahrain, prompting widespread condemnation.
“The explosion occurred on Wednesday evening at 8.20 while there were people praying at the mosque in Riffa,” the interior ministry said in a statement. “The security authorities rushed to the scene as soon as the case was reported. The investigation will continue to identify the suspects and bring them to justice,” the ministry said, quoting the Director-General of the Southern Governorate Police.
The bombing at the Shaikh Eisa Bin Salman Mosque in Riffa, 15 kilometres south of the capital Manama, was promptly condemned.
King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa directed the security services to take the necessary measures to enforce the law towards those who perpetrated the act of terror targeting innocent people performing their Taraweeh (Ramadan evening) prayers, the Bahrain News Agency (BNA) reported.
The monarch also called for the full application of the law against those who incited, participated and assisted in the acts during Ramadan, the official news agency added.
Such acts are alien to the values and morals of the people of Bahrain, who have had enough of them, the king said.
No one was injured in the attack.
Prime Minister Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa said that the bombing was “an ugly and despicable terrorist act that targeted a house of God and its worshippers in a cheap attempt to drag the country into a sectarian and doctrinal situation that is religiously unacceptable and officially and popularly condemnable.”
“Such attempts that are considered a dangerous escalation in the acts of terror will not succeed to defeat the determination of the people and the resolve of the government keen on resisting them,” Prince Khalifa was quoted as saying by the BNA. “The higher interests of the nation require a high sense of patriotic responsibility and acts in order to confront those who attempt to undermine relations between the people of Bahrain.”
Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa said that all people should speak out against violence and terror.
“The community leaders who lapse into silence should assume their responsibilities,” he said. “We are not at all pleased with the leaders who incite violence and are not serious about reaching an accord. Those who are genuinely sincere about a consensus should condemn and ban violence,” he said.
Al Wefaq, the largest opposition society, condemned the bombing, saying that it was a dangerous development “alien to the character of the Bahraini people.”
“We stand against any acts or plans of violence and such an act is against the peaceful nature of the Bahraini society,” Al Wefaq said.
Parliament Speaker Khalifa Al Dahrani said that the explosion was “a dangerous sectarian act to undermine security and national unity”.
Several religious scholars joined the chorus of condemnation and warned of the dangerous consequences of the bombing.
The car blast concluded a day of acts of violence in Bahrain that started with a company being set ablaze in the Budaya area, west of Manama, at 3.14am.
The police said that cylinders were used in the arson attack.
The car blast and the arson attack were the latest in a recent series of assaults on public figures and places in the kingdom rocked by months of unrest.
On Monday assailants attempted to set on fire the home of MP Abbas Eisa Al Madhi, the chairman of parliament’s Services Committee, in the coastal village of Dair in Muharraq, the country’s second largest island.
Bahrain rattled by bombing near royal palaces | GulfNews.com
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