Bomb kills mother and injures three children in Bahrain

A bomb blast has killed a woman and wounded three children who were inside a car in a restive Shia-majority district outside the Bahraini capital Manama, police said on Friday.

The explosion occurred on Thursday evening in the village of East Akar, one of a string of suburbs of the capital that have seen persistent unrest since the Gulf state's Sunni minority rulers crushed Shia-led protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister in 2011.

During many of these demonstrations, protesters have hurled petrol bombs at the police who have been heavily deployed in Shia-majority neighbourhoods as part of a crackdown on their leaders.

Earlier this month, Bahrain revoked the citizenship of the kingdom's top Shia cleric Isa Qassim, accusing him of sowing sectarian divisions, in the latest move against the majority community. This in turn sparked protests in his home town outside Manama.

The move also drew criticism from the United States, a major ally with military bases in the Gulf state, who said through a spokesman that it was "alarmed" and "deeply troubled" by the decision.