Bahrain arrests teenagers as crackdown continues

Two Bahraini 14-year-olds have been arrested as security forces continued to crackdown on protests across the country, an opposition group said on Thursday.

Hussein Ahmed Salman and Ahmed Abdullah, both 14, were detained by security forces and remain in detention, the al-Wefaq party said.

It was not immediately clear if the two teenagers were involved in the ongoing anti-government protests in much of the country.

The statement from al-Wefaq said that 240 people were arrested throughout July, including some who had been wounded as they protested against the government.

It added that over 100 people had been injured, including those hit with shotgun pellets and those affected by the continued use of tear gas to suppress protests.

The Bahraini government did not produce a comparative figure and there was no immediate way of verifying the figure.

Former Wefaq MP Matar Ebrahim said the government had failed to implement the recommendations of last year's Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), which called for reforms and an end to suppression.

“More than 16 months since the imposition of martial law, and with the BICI report being there for nine months, more violations were committed and not fewer," he said.

"This is an indicator that whatever was done to implement the BICI recommendations was actually empty... and did not help to change the situation on the ground.”

Tens of thousands of Bahrainis took to the streets last year calling for democratic reforms in the country but they were suppressed by force by government forces, backed up by Saudi troops.

(Al-Akhbar)