Villages Attacked Chemical Gas kills villager in his home

Several villages attacked; Bahraini dies after inhaling toxic gas
11 April, 2012 – Shia Post

Pro-government thugs in Bahrain have attacked several villages near the capital, Manama, and Bahraini has died due to asphyxia after inhaling poisonous tear gas fired by Saudi-backed regime forces as Manama’s brutal crackdown on protests continue.

The victim, identified as Abdul Rasoul Hassan Ismail, died after inhaling toxic gas fired on his house in the village of Karbabad last week.

Several Bahraini civilians, mostly senior citizens and kids, have died due to the misuse of tear gas against protesters by regime forces.

Meanwhile, Bahraini authorities continue to defy national and international calls to release prominent rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has been on hunger strike for over two months and is feared to be on the verge of death.

Witnesses said on Wednesday that hundreds of regime thugs wielding knives and sticks attacked a number of Shia villages overnight, beating residents and damaging their properties.

Some reports suggest that the attackers were responding to messages posted online to avenge a bomb attack that injured seven policemen in the area two days earlier.

Activists, however, say the bombing was orchestrated by the regime itself to justify its brutality against protest areas.

Bahrain’s largest opposition group al-Wefaq says security forces did nothing to stop the attackers, who were in civilian clothes.

“The security forces did not carry out their duty, they did not disperse the (assailants) or prevent them from attacking citizens,” al-Wefaq statement said, adding that authorities must “deal with these militias.”

The latest development comes amid escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf country over the deteriorating health of jailed prominent human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who is on hunger strike to protest against the life sentence handed to him and Manama’s ongoing crackdown on protests.

Bahrainis have held several demonstrations in support of Khawaja after he started his strike in February, urging the government to release him.

Amnesty International has also called for the ‘immediate and unconditional release’ of al-Khawaja, considering him a ‘prisoner of conscience, detained solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression’. …source