BAHRAIN
MANAMA — Authorities have charged 15 policemen with mistreating prisoners during last year’s crackdown on opposition protesters, Bahrain’s public prosecutor says.
The charges Tuesday follow a probe into police abuses that was recommended by an independent commission that studied the Gulf nation’s Shiite majority’s uprising against the Sunni monarchy.
Prosecutor Nawaf Abdullah Hamza did not identify the officers involved or give details of the allegations against them.
In a separate case, the commission found three protesters were shot at close range.
Bahrain said in June that three police officers would be charged with murder.
Meanwhile, the Information Affairs Authority said a policeman was severely burned Monday when he was attacked with a Molotov cocktail while on foot patrol in a Shiite neighborhood where clashes with anti-government protests routinely take place.
IRAQ
Bomb on minibus kills 4,injures 5 south of Baghdad
BAGHDAD — An explosion from a bomb attached to the underside of a minibus Monday killed four people and injured five others south of Baghdad.
Maj. Muthana Khalid, spokesman of Hilla provincial police, said Tuesday that the sticky bomb blew up late Monday as the minibus was traveling in Haswa, 30 miles south of the Iraqi capital.
He said two policemen who were guarding the road were among the dead.
Violence has ebbed in Iraq, but insurgent attacks are still frequent in an attempt to undermine the Shiite-led government.
BAHRAIN
Islamist lawmakers made unofficial visit to Syria
DUBAI — Bahrain’s government on Tuesday distanced itself from Islamist lawmakers who visited Syria over the weekend and delivered aid to rebels in the north, where they are fighting regime forces.
“The entry into Syria by a number of Bahraini [members of parliament] took place without notifying the Foreign Ministry,” the ministry said in a statement carried by BNA official news agency.
Lawmakers Adel al-Maawda and Abdulhalim Murad, along with former lawmaker Hamad al-Mohanadi and Judge Faisal al-Ghurair, all members of the Salafist Asala political association, had said they visited Aleppo and met members of the rebel Free Syrian Army on Sunday. They posted pictures of their meeting on Twitter.
“We gave pledges to build three field hospitals and delivered donations from the people of Bahrain to the [rebel] army,” Mr. Murad tweeted after Islamists in the Gulf kingdom organized fundraising campaigns to support the rebels.
IRAQ
Visit by Turkish officialprompts ’review’ of relations
BAGHDAD — Iraq will “review” relations with Turkey after Ankara’s foreign minister visited the disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk without informing Baghdad, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Tuesday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s visit to Kirkuk on Aug. 2 drew a furious reaction from Baghdad and brought already chilly relations between the two countries to a new low.
“The Cabinet studied recent developments in Turkish-Iraqi relations and decided to review these relations in light of recent developments in a new Cabinet meeting as soon as possible,” Mr. Dabbagh said in an email.
The Cabinet also decided to form a committee headed by Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani “to investigate the circumstances of the Turkish foreign minister’s visit to Kirkuk and present recommendations to the Cabinet,” he said.
Iraq’s Foreign Ministry responded to the visit with a statement, saying “it is not in the interest of Turkey or any other party to underestimate the national sovereignty and violate the rules of international relations.”
But Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended the visit, saying it is only normal for “a minister bearing a red passport to visit the regional administration [in Kurdistan in north Iraq] and then travel to Kirkuk … to meet with his kinsmen.”
Kirkuk province is part of a swath of disputed territory in northern Iraq.
• From wire dispatches and staff reports
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