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Three police officers injured in Bahrain bus blast

An explosion rocked a bus carrying police in Bahrain on Friday, while security forces used teargas in clashes with anti-government protesters.

The explosion struck a minibus carrying police on Friday evening in Dih, the Ministry of Interior said on its official Twitter feed.

Photos released on the ministry’s Twitter feed showed the side panels of the white bus torn from the chassis and twisted upward near the wheel wells.

A ministry official near the scene of the blast told reporters that three police officers were injured in the explosion. Anti-government factions have been increasingly using bombs targeting government forces.

Authorities in late December announced the seizure of large amounts of explosives, automatic rifles and ammunition.

Earlier in the day, protesters were turned back as they tried to make their way to the former site of Manama’s Pearl Square, the focal point for the protest that started on February 14, 2011.

Some of the youths marching on Friday were masked and held unlit Molotov cocktails or metal rods. Police used teargas to prevent them from approaching the former protest grounds.

On Thursday, 29 were arrested over “rioting and vandalism” in villages outside Manama, the Interior Ministry said.

Protesters blocked roads to villages outside the capital with debris and smeared oil on the pavement to try to prevent security forces from entering.