Manama: Security forces firing rubber bullets and tear gas attacked the headquarters of Bahrain's largestopposition party in the capital on Friday after the group challenged a new government ban on its weekly protests.
Police also used tear gas to disperse hundreds of opposition supporters attempting to protest elsewhere in the capital.
"I was really shocked to see tear gas and rubber bullets hit our offices," said vice president of the Al Wefaq party, Shaikh Hussain Al Daihi. He said he was inside the building with foreign journalists when the security forces attacked and that a 13-year-old girl among those hurt had a serious injury to her thigh.
Authorities banned the weekly Friday protests for the first time since emergency laws were lifted in June.
The Interior Ministry said on its official Twitter account that a group of "vandals" hurled stones at the police forces behind the office of Al Wefaq, prompting it to take "legal procedures."
Defying government orders, Shiite clerics on Friday also held prayer services on the rubble of mosques that had been bulldozed by authorities earlier this year. It was the first time that Shiite clerics have actively taken part in the protest movement, openly defying the government.
The Shiite clerics say at least 38 mosques used by their congregations were destroyed since the protests began in February.
"We will start a campaign to defend our religious sites and the first such activity starts with a protest at the end of the prayer at Diraz grand mosque," senior Shiite cleric Shaikh Isa Qassim said during his Friday sermon. Diraz is an opposition stronghold northwest of the capital.
"We demand democracy for one people, Sunni and Shiite, and we understand the approach of the government that aims to divide our people. We are the ones who insist on unity, and because of this we are targeted by the government," he said.
