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DUBAI: Militants attacked a Bahraini police bus near the Jidhafs area outside the capital Manama on Friday, wounding several policemen, the interior ministry said on Twitter.
Terrorist act targeted a police bus on Khalifa bin Salman highway near Jidhafs,
— Ministry of Interior (@moi_bahrain) October 27, 2017
The attack targeted the bus on the Khalifa bin Salman highway, the ministry said. “The necessary steps” were being taken, it said, without giving details.
PT: several policemen injured, relevant procedures are being taken
— Ministry of Interior (@moi_bahrain) October 27, 2017
The incident was the latest in a series of attacks targeting policemen in the Western-allied country, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based.
The government blames the attacks on Shi’ite militants it says are backed by Iran to destabilise the country, a charge Tehran denies.
Earlier this month, a blast wounded five policemen on Budaiya road, near Manama, while they were guarding a procession by Shi’ite Muslims marking the annual Ashura festival, which commemorates the death of Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Imam Hussein some 1400 years ago.
The statements provided no further details about the number of policemen injured, the type of attack or who was thought to have carried it out.
Jidhafs is a Shiite town.
Bahrain, a Shiite-majority kingdom ruled by a Sunni dynasty, has seen sporadic violence since a crackdown in 2011 on a protest movement demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister. Authorities have since tightened their grip on dissent, jailing hundreds of protesters and stripping a string of high-profile activists and clerics of citizenship.
Last week, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashed Al-Khalifa accused Iran of harbouring 160 Bahrainis convicted of terrorism and stripped of their citizenship.
He accused Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards of having trained the group, who were convicted of attacks that killed 25 security personnel and wounded 3,000 others.
READ THE UPDATE: Bomb attack kills one Bahraini policeman, wounds eight
