TEHRAN, YJC. Saudi-backed regime forces in Bahrain have attacked demonstrators in the capital who were protesting against the government’s heavy-handed crackdown on their peaceful movement.
On Saturday, Bahraini security forces clashed with demonstrators infuriated over the regime's refusal to hand over the body of a recently slain protester.
Regime forces fired tear gas to disperse protesters as they tried to reach Manama's Salmaniya hospital to retrieve the body of Mahmoud al-Jaziri.
The 20-year-old sustained fatal head injuries last week when regime forces attacked a demonstration commemorating the second anniversary of the beginning of the uprising in the Persian Gulf nation.
His family says the authorities have refused to hand over the body because of a dispute over the location they selected for the funeral.
Since mid-February 2011, thousands of pro-democracy protesters have staged numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.
On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on the peaceful protesters.
According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested.
Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have "evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police" in the crackdown on anti-government protesters.