Bahraini riot police fired tear gas to break up fresh anti-regime protests held in the northern villages of Karbabad and Maqabah as well as the eastern village of Nuwaidrat.
Reports say several people were injured in the Thursday clashes between regime forces and Bahraini protesters, Press TV reported.
The new clashes coincided with the protest rallies staged across Bahrain to mark International Workers’ Day on May 1.
Meanwhile, Bahrain’s main opposition party al-Wefaq National Islamic Society said the Al Khalifa regime had “misused” the state security forces in favor of “narrow political and sectarian interests” amid the ongoing political crisis in the country, Ahl al-Bait News Agency (ABNA) reported on Thursday.
The group also urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to closely monitor the situation in the Persian Gulf state, according to the report.
Al-Wefaq further called for a reform in Bahrain’s security system, saying it supports a security system that respects human rights and provides “safety and security for all.”
Manama has launched a heavy-handed clampdown on anti-regime protesters since the uprising against the ruling Al Khalifa broke out across the Persian Gulf kingdom in February 2011.
Scores of Bahrainis have so far been killed and hundreds of others injured and arrested in the ongoing regime crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.
In February, Amnesty International censured Manama’s “relentless repression” of peaceful demonstrations, stressing that Bahraini regime forces use “excessive force to quash anti-government protests.”