Bahrain authorities say 286 people arrested in raid targeting Shiite cleric's town; five protesters killed. </s> DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Bahrain authorities say 286 people arrested in raid targeting Shiite cleric’s town; five protesters killed. </s> Bahrain has executed three men convicted of killing three police officers in a 2014 bombing. The move sparked protests in the island nation and could further raise tensions between the country's Shiite majority and its Sunni rulers.

Start the conversation, or Read more at KMIZ. </s> By The Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Police in Bahrain say four people have been killed and some 20 others were injured when a building collapsed in the island kingdom. The Interior Ministry said that an…

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Police in Bahrain say four people have been killed and some 20 others were injured when a building collapsed in the island kingdom.

The Interior Ministry said that an “old building” collapsed Tuesday in Salmaniya, a neighborhood of Bahrain’s capital, Manama.

Police said the injuries were “medium and serious,” without elaborating, and that 60 rescuers with firetrucks and ambulances responded.

The police updated the casualty figures Wednesday on Twitter, saying that three bodies were retrieved at the site, while one victim died at a hospital.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Police in Bahrain say four people have been killed and some 20 others were injured when a building collapsed in the island kingdom.

The Interior Ministry said that an "old building" collapsed Tuesday in Salmaniya, a neighborhood of Bahrain's capital, Manama.

Police said the injuries were "medium and serious," without elaborating, and that 60 rescuers with firetrucks and ambulances responded.

The police updated the casualty figures Wednesday on Twitter, saying that three bodies were retrieved at the site, while one victim died at a hospital. </s> Image copyright adhrb Image caption Amnesty International said one of those killed had suffered birdshot wounds to the head

The death toll from Tuesday's raid by Bahraini police on the home of the Sunni-ruled kingdom's most prominent Shia cleric has risen to five.

The interior ministry said 286 people were also arrested after officers came "under attack by members of a terrorist cell" in the village of Diraz.

Activists said the officers opened fire at a sit-in by supporters of Sheikh Isa Qassim, who was not detained.

It came two days after the cleric was convicted of corruption charges.

Sheikh Qassim was handed a one-year suspended prison sentence and fined 100,000 Bahraini dinars ($265,000; £204,000) after being found guilty by a court of collecting funds illegally and money laundering.

Last June, Bahrain stripped him of his citizenship, accusing him of using his position to promote violence.

The decision left him stateless and at risk of deportation, prompting the sit-in outside his home. Police responded by surrounding Diraz and restricting access.

An interior ministry statement said Tuesday's operation was undertaken to "safeguard public safety".

"During the operation, police authorities came under attack by members of a terrorist cell throwing fire bombs, metal rods, knives and axes forcing the security authorities to respond proportionately," it added.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Last June the authorities stripped Sheikh Isa Qassim of his Bahraini citizenship

"A total of 286 arrests were made, including fugitives that had escaped from Jaw Prison. Several terrorists and convicted felons were also apprehended with a large number of them hiding in the residence of Isa Qassim."

Nineteen officers were injured in the clashes and five deaths were "registered among the outlaws", another ministry statement said.

Witnesses said the raid on the sit-in triggered clashes, with officers firing birdshot and tear gas at demonstrators throwing stones and petrol bombs.

Photographs and videos circulated by activists showed a bulldozer smashing through a barrier and youths climbing on an armoured personnel carrier.

The UK-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy said five peaceful demonstrators had been killed "in a heinous crime enabled by the unconditional support of the Bahraini rulers' key allies in Riyadh, Washington and London".

Amnesty International said one of those killed had suffered birdshot wounds to the head and called for an independent investigation into the police's use of "excessive force" against protesters it said were mostly peaceful.

Human Rights Watch said "the timing of this operation - two days after King Hamad's convivial meeting with President Trump - can hardly be a coincidence".

At a summit in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, Mr Trump told Bahrain's ruler that its relations with the US would not be put under "strain" as they were during the Obama administration, which criticised the kingdom's human rights record.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Bahrain's King Hamad met US President Donald Trump at a summit in Riyadh on Sunday

A US state department official told AFP news agency on Tuesday that Washington was "concerned" by the reports of protesters' deaths and called "on all parties to contribute to a climate conducive for dialogue and reconciliation".

Bahrain has been wracked by unrest since security forces crushed pro-democracy protests mainly led by the majority Shia community during the Arab Spring in 2011.

King Hamad brought in troops from neighbouring Sunni-led Gulf states to end the demonstrations and restore order. The unrest left 30 civilians and five police dead.

Activists say dozens more people have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces since then, while bomb attacks blamed on militants allegedly backed by Iran have killed a number of policemen.

The authorities have launched a wider crackdown on dissent over the past year that has included banning the main Shia political grouping, Wefaq, which was accused of fomenting sectarian unrest, and jailing its leader Sheikh Ali Salman. </s> DOHA (Reuters) - An apartment building collapsed in Bahrain’s capital late on Tuesday leaving at least four people dead and 20 injured, the interior ministry said.

Three bodies were found at the site in Manama’s Salmaniya neighborhood and one person died in hospital, the ministry said. </s> DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Bahraini authorities on Sunday put to death three men found guilty of a deadly bomb attack on police, the kingdom’s first executions since an Arab Spring-inspired uprising rocked the country in 2011.

The executions of the Shiite men drew swift criticism from human rights groups and sparked outrage among opponents of the Sunni-ruled government, who see the charges as politically motivated. Activists allege that testimony used against the condemned men was obtained through torture.

Bahrain’s public prosecution said the death sentences were carried out by firing squad early in the day. The executions were the first in the U.S.-allied nation since 2010 and followed a spike in protests in solidarity with the convicted men.

Abbas al-Samea, Sami Mushaima and Ali al-Singace were found guilty in 215 of killing two Bahraini policemen and an Emirati officer deployed to bolster the country’s security forces in a 2014 bomb attack. Their death sentences were upheld by a Bahraini court last Monday.

Bahrain is a tiny island nation off the coast of Saudi Arabia that hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which patrols the waters around the Arabian Peninsula and is the naval counterweight to nearby Shiite powerhouse Iran.

Government forces crushed the 2011 uprising with help from allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but the country continues to face low-level unrest led by a majority Shiite population that feels marginalized by the Sunni monarchy.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets Saturday in solidarity with the condemned men as rumors spread that their executions were imminent. Images shared on social media showed activists blocking roads with burning debris and hurling petrol bombs in clashes with police.

Nicholas McGeehan, a researcher who monitors Bahrain for Human Rights Watch, called the executions inflammatory and unjust. He urged the kingdom’s allies to “publicly and unequivocally condemn these killings.”

Protests and clashes continued Sunday despite a heavy presence of riot police deployed in predominantly Shiite areas. Witnesses said shops were shuttered in Daih, where the 2014 bombing happened. Garbage bins were seen overturned and set alight in the streets.

One police officer was injured when several people shot at a police patrol in Bani Jamra, west of the capital Manama, the Interior Ministry said Sunday. It gave no further details.

The Ashtar Brigade, a Shiite militant group that analysts say has claimed some 20 bombings in Bahrain since 2013, took responsibility for the attack on the police officer on social media. The Associated Press could not immediately verify the post, though it came in a forum often used by the group.

“We announce through this statement that all options are open and all targets are monitored,” said the group, which prosecutors have linked to the three men executed Sunday.

Al-Samea and Mushaima alleged they were subjected to electric shocks, beatings, cigarette burns, sleep deprivation and sexual assault while in custody, Amnesty International reported in 2015. Al-Singace’s mother says her son was also tortured, according to British rights group Reprieve.

“It is nothing short of an outrage — and a disgraceful breach of international law — that Bahrain has gone ahead with these executions,” Reprieve director Maya Foa said. “The death sentences handed to Ali, Sami and Abbas were based on ‘confessions’ extracted through torture, and the trial an utter sham.”

Government officials did not respond to a request for comment Sunday on allegations that torture was used against the men. Bahraini officials have previously said the government is opposed to any kind of mistreatment and has safeguards in place to prevent it.

Bahrain’s last execution was of a Bangladeshi man in 2010. A number of death sentences have been issued since then.

The three put to death Sunday were the first who had held Bahraini citizenship executed since 1996, according to Reprieve, though they were technically stateless at the time of their deaths after being stripped of their citizenship when convicted.

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell contributed to this report. </s> At least one person was killed and seven others wounded in an explosion outside a Shia mosque in the western Afghan city of Herat, an official told Al Jazeera.

Two suicide bombers attempted to enter the Nabi Akram mosque in Police District 7 on Sunday, but were pushed back by security guards, the official said.

"One was killed in firing and the other triggered his explosives causing casualties," he added.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to media, without providing evidence for the claim.

The area of the explosion has been cordoned off by police.

Shia Muslims are a persecuted minority in Afghanistan and have been threatened by the affiliate of the ISIL group that operates in the country's east.

The attack comes days after an ISIL bomber targeted a group of Shia marking the Persian new year in kabul, killing at least 30 people.
Five people are killed in a raid on a house of a Shia cleric in Bahrain.