MANAMA – Bahrain police found a bomb planted on the busy Causeway linking the island to Saudi Arabia, and four officers were shot and wounded in a village, officials said. The 2 kg bomb, discovered Thursday near a mosque on the Bahraini end of the route used by thousands of people a day, was safely defused, said the Information Authority in Bahrain. Late on Friday, four officers were hit by birdshot pellets in the village of Karzakan, the authority added, quoting the island's chief of public security Major-General Tariq Hassan Al-Hassan. In a related development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Saturday the Charge d'Affaires of Lebanon to the Kingdom of Bahrain, Ibrahim Assaf, to denounce the irresponsible statement made to Al-Alam Iranian TV channel by Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun and released later by Fars news agency Wednesday. Bahrain rejects such irresponsible statement which constitutes flagrant interference in its internal affairs and an unacceptable encroachment on its sovereignty. Foreign Ministry Undersecretary for Regional Affairs and Co-operation Council Ambassador Hamad Al-Amer voiced an official protest to the Lebanese Charge d'Affaires dismissing in the strongest terms the statement made by Aoun. The Change and Reform bloc is represented by three ministers in the Lebanese Cabinet. Ambassador Al-Amer urged Lebanon to immediately take appropriate measures in such instances in line with the bilateral ties binding the two countries and in compliance with the principles and resolutions of the Arab League's Charter that denounce interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states and aim to maintain Arab's efforts to face outside challenges and threats to the Arab world's security and stability. – Agencies
