Bahrain Protesters Clash With Police Near Capital After Teenager’s Funeral
Security forces clashed with demonstrators along a central highway west of Bahrain’s capital, Manama, on Friday, in what appeared to be among the largest protests in months.
The Interior Ministry acknowledged that security forces had moved to clear the area, but it blamed “vandals” for blocking the highway after the funeral of a teenager who activists said was killed by police officers the day before. “This led to interference of security forces to bring the situation to normal,” it said in a statement.
The clashes, which did not lead to any deaths, followed a week in which the government of Bahrain took steps to present a less punitive approach to antigovernment protesters. On Wednesday, the government’s top prosecutor nullified harsh prison terms, handed down last week, for medical workers accused of antigovernment activities, ordering those in custody to be freed pending retrials.
The prosecution of the medical workers had become a symbol of the government’s tough response to a wave of protests in the spring and had attracted negative international attention…
