Reports: Hundreds Attack Bahrain's Shiite Areas

Bahrainis wielding knives and sticks attacked residents of the kingdom's Shiite villages overnight beating them in retaliation for a bomb attack against policemen, witnesses and the opposition said Wednesday.

The assailants, who according to witnesses came from Sunni neighborhoods, were responding to messages posted online to avenge the bomb attack that injured seven policemen in a Shiite village on Monday.

"I saw hundreds of men carrying knives, sticks and other sharp objects," on the outskirts of several Shiite villages, said one witness who identified himself only as Hussein.

"They were stopping cars and asking passengers where they lived in order to determine what sect they belonged to," he told Agence France Presse by telephone, referring to the Sunni and Shiite communities in Bahrain.

Al-Wefaq, the largest Shiite opposition group, said the attackers were in civilians clothes and "beat up" residents of Shiite villages.

A statement by the group accused security forces of failing to stop the attacks.

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

But Bahrain's interior ministry said police "prevented" a group of unknown assailants from entering al-Nuweidrat village, a Shiite community on the outskirts of the capital Manama.

In a statement released late Tuesday, the ministry said assailants "attacked 24-hour shops and destroyed two cars," after holding an "illegal gathering."

But the Bahraini interior ministry did not mention attacks by Sunnis on Shiite neighborhoods.

The latest violence comes amid escalating tensions in Sunni-ruled Bahrain over the deteriorating health of prominent Shiite activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who is on hunger strike and who has been condemned to life in jail for plotting to overthrow the Sunni monarchy.

Anger is also mounting over the decision by Grand Prix Formula One organizers to go ahead with the show in Bahrain scheduled for April 22.

The youth group of the "Revolution of February 14" has called for "three days of rage" in the Gulf kingdom from April 20 to 22, and also launched a campaign on Twitter to prevent the race from taking place.