Manama: A Bahraini policeman was killed when his patrol car came under attack on Wednesday night near Karzakan, a village to the south west of Manama.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Shaikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, prime minister, condemned it as a "dangerous and unjustified act" and pledged a zero-tolerance policy against "criminal acts and violations of the law."
The car, carrying the policeman who was identified as Majid Asghar Ali, 27, was part of an interior ministry convoy patrolling near Karzakan.
Rioters last month set fire to a farm in the area belonging to a senior security official, Shaikh Abdul Aziz Bin Atiyatallah Al Khalifa.
No-one was seriously injured in the fire incident, but police later said they arrested some of the alleged perpetrators and the situation in the area remained tense.
In a statement that followed the attack on the car, the interior ministry said "masked men hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at a security patrol, causing the death of a policeman and slight injuries to others."
"We are still investigating the incident," the ministry said in the brief statement sent to the media.
The prime minister, reacting immediately after the incident, pledged to "tackle every attempt targeting security and stability and threatening people's safety and interests."
"The government will take all necessary measures to ensure that such criminal acts and violations of the law are not repeated.
"We urge all political forces and civil society institutions to assume their responsibilities in promoting awareness about the dangers resulting from the use of violence, terror and sabotage," he said in a statement carried by Bahrain News Agency.
MP Jassem Al Saeed, an independent Salafi, said in a press statement the attack was "an unforgivable crime perpetrated by all those who incited young people to throw stones and Molotov cocktails and threatened to burn and destroy the country."
