(Reuters) – A Bahraini teenager was killed by security forces on Thursday, an opposition website reported, as activists demonstrated on the second anniversary of an uprising demanding democratic reforms in the U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state.
The protests could mar reconciliation talks which began last week between opposition groups and the government and its loyalists in a bid to end two years of political deadlock.
The website of the main opposition group Wefaq said a young man identified as Ali Ahmed Ibrahim al-Jazeeri died from what it called internationally banned exploding bullets in the village of Diya near the capital Manama. It said the victim was born in 1996. It gave no further details on the incident.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement on its Twitter account that a death had occurred but gave no details of the incident. It said the police operations room had been notified by Salmaniya Hospital that one person had been “brought in with injuries, but it turned out he had later died”.
The ministry said rioters had blocked a number of roads and security forces were seeking to restore order.
Witnesses reported that many roads connecting villages around Manama had been blocked, while schools for Westerners remained closed for fear of violence.
The island state is home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet.
Protests that began in early 2011 were crushed but demonstrators have continued small protests on an almost daily basis demanding the Sunni ruling family call elections and create a constitutional monarchy.
(Writing by Sami Aboudi, editing by William Maclean and Janet Lawrence)