Roadside bombing kills Bahrain police officer, wounds 8

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Authorities in Bahrain say a roadside bomb has killed a police officer and wounded eight others. Shiite militants applauded the attack and attributed it to a little-known group.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said the bomb struck a police bus Friday afternoon in the island kingdom that is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

A ministry-released photograph showed shrapnel pelted the bus.

Police say militants used a remotely detonated homemade bomb.

A statement later released by the Mukhtar Brigade, a Shiite militant group that has claimed several similar attacks, said the bombing “gave the enemy a taste of what they’ve been doing to us all along.” It said the God’s Promise Brigade, which carried out a 2015 attack on police, was responsible.

Bahrain, in the midst of a crackdown on all dissent, has seen sporadic militant attacks since its government put down its 2011 Arab Spring protests..