MANAMA (AFP) — Bahrain has been hit by rioting in majority Shiite areas for a fifth consecutive day in demonstrations that have seen the death of one protester, press reports said on Sunday.
Security forces have fired teargas and rubber bullets in Shiite villages in disturbances that erupted following the death on Monday of a young protester after a demonstration organised by the opposition, the reports said.
The 22-year-old man died in hospital after being taken ill at his home after the protest at Jid Hafs during which he inhaled teargas, an opposition activist told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Security sources cited by the official Bahrain News Agency (BNA) said the man had died of natural causes and that an investigation had been launched into his death.
The Al-Wasat newspaper on Sunday reported a statement by the independent Bahrain Human Rights Association that security forces had made 39 arrests and around a dozen people had been injured during the demonstrations.
An interior ministry official said in a statement carried by BNA that the people arrested were not being held for their political activism but for implication in theft of weapons and arson against a police car.
Monday's protest was staged by Shiites -- the majority in the small Sunni Muslim-ruled Gulf monarchy -- seeking compensation for what they said were human rights violations between 1980 and 1990.
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