"... Bahraini riot police engaged in pitched battles with petrol-bomb throwing youths on Sunday as violence escalated ahead of the Feb. 14 anniversary of an uprising last year, while King Hamad mocked the opposition for its "bad manners".
Teenagers blocked off streets in the village of Sanabis, taunting police as "cowards" and "mercenaries" because some are thought to be Pakistani or Yemeni. A policeman shouted to people to get indoors. "This gathering is illegal," he said...
Bahrainis initially took to the streets last February, inspired by uprisings in other Arab states, but the government imposed martial law and stamped out the unrest in the March with the help of Saudi troops.
Demonstrations began again after the emergency law was lifted in June and are escalating before the anniversary of the 2011 protests.
Bahrain is an ally of the United States and home base to the U.S. Navy's vast Fifth Fleet which patrols the Gulf.The ruling Al Khalifa family accuses Iran of fomenting the uprising. Tehran denies playing a role, and Bahrain's Shi'ite groups deny they receive support from abroad.
In an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, the king accused his opponents of chanting in support of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"It's just a case of manners. But when they shout 'Down with the king and up with Khamenei' that's a problem for national unity," the magazine quoted Hamad as saying in extracts of an interview, the rest of which would be published on Monday.
The refrain "Down with Hamad", sounded by trumpets and car horns and chanted at rallies, has become a rallying call of opposition protests. Reuters journalists have not witnessed the opposition chanting in support of Khamenei.
"In a sense there is no 'opposition' in Bahrain,..." Hamad said in the extracts. "Such a phrase is not in our constitution, unlike say the United Kingdom. We only have people with different views, and that's okay." ...
The government says such clashes are acts of hooliganism by youth who put police and other Bahrainis' lives in danger...
In his interview, Hamad defended last year's martial law, which he said was intended to protect women and expatriates from attack ...
Thirty-five people died by the time martial law ended, including protesters, police, Shi'ite detainees and foreigners. The ongoing clashes have taken the death toll above 60, although the government disputes the causes of death of many.
The king also said he called in Gulf military help, mainly in the form of Saudi troops, to protect Bahrain's "strategic installations..."
Despite dealing firmly with its own protests, Bahrain has been one of the Gulf Arab countries leading the Arab League in opposing Syria's Bashar al-Assad,..."
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