Dubai: Two Bahraini policemen were wounded in clashes with rioters, according to an interior ministry statement.

“Security forces confronted groups of saboteurs in Bilad Al Qadim,” the ministry said in a statement posted late Thursday on Twitter.

The “saboteurs” hurled Molotov cocktails at the policemen wounding two, it added.

Bilad Al Qadim is the hometown of Shiite opposition chief Shaikh Ali Salman, currently serving a four-year jail sentence for inciting disobedience.

On Thursday, a Bahraini court jailed 19 Shiites for attacks against police, including five life sentences, according to a judicial source.