Roadside bombing kills Bahrain police officer, wounds 8

Flag of Bahrain (Photo By Source: Drawn by User:SKopp, rewritten by User:Zscout370 – http://www.moci.gov.bh/en/KingdomofBahrain/BahrainFlag/, Public Domain)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Authorities in Bahrain say a roadside bomb has killed a police officer and wounded eight others. A local Shiite militant group has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said the bomb struck a police bus Friday afternoon in the island kingdom that is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

A ministry-released photograph showed shrapnel pelted the bus.

Police say militants used a remotely detonated homemade bomb.

A statement later released by the Mukhtar Brigade, a Shiite militant group that has claimed several similar attacks, said the bombing “gave the enemy a taste of what they’ve been doing to us all along.”

Bahrain, in the midst of a crackdown on all dissent, has seen sporadic militant attacks since its government put down its 2011 Arab Spring protests.