Clashes between riot police and protesters in Bahrain on Friday evening resulted in the death of 16-year-old Husam Al-Haddad.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry issued a statement confirming Al-Haddad’s death. According to the statement, one of the security patrols was ambushed by a petrol attack and was acting in self-defence. They referred to the offensive as a “terrorist attack” and claimed that Al-Haddad was one of the civilians involved. He was transported to the hospital and died shortly after. “[The Director General] stressed that this work is an act of terrorism in the form of targeted killing to take the lives of members on patrol and put the lives of private citizens and residents at risk,” according to the Interior Ministry.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), which uploaded photos of Al-Haddad’s body on its website, released a statement saying this is the most recent example of “excessive force against protesters.”
“According to eye witnesses who contacted BCHR, Hussam was shot with shotgun pellets which made him fall to the ground. Then, one of his family members witnessed him getting kicked repeatedly by a man in civilian clothing while security forces stood idly watching,” said the BCHR. The human rights organisation supported their claims with a number of photos of the corpse of Al-Haddad, which bore visible bruising and a number of pellet wounds.
The fatality came one day after President of the BCHR, Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab was sentenced to three years in prison on Thursday, charged with leading “illegal gatherings.”
“We believe that all people have a fundamental right to participate in peaceful acts of protest…Excessive punishment for peaceful expression…will not contribute to those efforts and only serves to divide Bahraini society further,” said United States State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland on Friday.
However, groups like the BCHR have expressed the belief that close allies can do more to pressure Manama. “We call on the US and other countries which are selling arms to Bahrain to immediately stop the sale of arms, as they are a silent contributor to the violations of the Bahraini regime,” announced the BCHR on its website.
Waves of protests in the capital city of Manama and throughout the rest Sunni-ruled and majority Shi’a Bahrain kicked off in June 2011, calling for democratic reform. Roughly 50 people have been killed in protests since June 2011. The Bahrain Interior Ministry has claimed that 700 police officers have come under attack since the beginning of this year.
