Funeral held for 14-year-old boy killed in demonstrations

An anti-government demonstrator gestures in front of police in Manama Following clashes between police and Shiite Muslims in Bahrain which stretched into Thursday morning, fueled by the killing of a 14-year-old boy by riot police in earlier demonstrations, the government of the Persian Gulf island state said it would "await a full investigation" by the Interior Ministry before drawing any conclusions about the death early Wednesday of Ali Jawad al-Sheikh. Several witnesses said they saw the boy collapse after a tear-gas round was fired directly at him by riot police who were chasing al-Sheikh and other protesters in Sitra, southwest of the capital Manama. Large crowds marched through a restive village near the capital of Bahrain on Thursday for the funeral of a 14-year-old boy killed during a protest against the government.
Photographs of the boy’s face — smiling before his death and caked in blood shortly after — covered the coffin as it was lofted into the air in Sitra, an oil village six miles south of the capital, Manama, and a hub of opposition sentiment. Many in the crowd waved the red and white flag of Bahrain as they followed the body to its burial site.
Protesters and mourners held photocopied images of the boy during the march. Activists said many people in Bahrain had been outraged by the image of the boy, identified as Ali Jawad Ahmad, and that thousands filled the street on Thursday to protest his death.
“The picture is affecting people,” said Mohammed al-Maskati, the head of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, adding that he expected “a huge number of security forces” to respond to the gathering. By mid-afternoon, however, there were no reports of confrontations in Sitra.
But the Interior Ministry said no clashes were taking place at the time when the boy was injured, saying that the last reported incident of unrest in the area was around 1:15 a.m. Wednesday. Later in the day, Bahrain’s head of public prosecution, Osama al-Asfoor, released a statement saying that an autopsy showed that Ali had died of injuries to the back of his neck. Mr. Asfoor also said that the boy had injuries under his chin and bruises on his face, hand, knees and pelvic area. He said that a blood examination showed no effects of tear gas exposure. Activists said the police had surrounded the hospital where the boy died in order to restrict gatherings outside. The swiftness of the government’s response, both on the ground by the police and in public statements on Twitter and in the official news media, underlined how seriously officials were taking the boy’s death and their fears that it could inflame the restive town. 
Clashes broke out on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr festival for many Shiites in Bahrain, one of several countries embroiled in anti-government protests across the Middle East and North Africa this year. By the early hours of Thursday, they had spread to most Shiite villages and parts of Manama.
Police responded heavily to street fights in three districts near the Pearl Roundabout, the epicenter of anti-government protests that began in February, witnesses said. Bahrain demolished the landmark Pearl Monument at the center of the plaza in March after it became a symbol of the demonstrations.
Protests have lingered for months despite a crackdown by Bahrain's Sunni monarchy, backed by troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. More than 30 people have been killed the crackdown, in which activists say Bahraini security forces used live ammunition. Opposition groups say more than 1,000 people -- mainly Shiites -- have been detained and more than 2,000 have lost their jobs for allegedly taking part in the protests.
Bahrain is a close ally of the United States and houses the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. Its rulers blame Shiite-ruled Iran for stirring up trouble among its Shiite majority, but opposition leaders and Iranian officials deny the allegation and many Western powers have dismissed it.
Riot police surrounded the hospital where he was taken and took custody of his body amid rising tension with relatives and area residents, witnesses said. The body was transported to the country's main hospital morgue.
The boy's father, Jawad al-Sheikh, told CNN that when he went to the hospital, his son was "hard to recognize because he was covered with blood." He appealed for human rights groups to take steps against Bahrain's leaders, saying, "I lost my child. ... He does not deserve this destiny." The dead boy’s uncle, Isa Hassan, who was also at Wednesday morning’s demonstration, described a small group of protesters assembling after morning prayers and then being confronted by the police, who fired tear gas at them from roughly 20 feet away. “They are supposed to lob the canisters of gas, not shoot them at people,” Mr. Hassan told The Associated Press. “Police used it as a weapon.”
Tuesday, Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the situation in Bahrain remains "tense and unpredictable," with small protests still being repressed. The United Nations has demanded that Bahrain release prisoners detained for exercising freedom of speech.