Four US Journalists Arrested In Bahrain For Alleged Participating In Police Attacks

Four Americans including members of international media were detained in Bahrain for allegedly participating in illegal anti-government activities and for using falsified documents in entering the country according to official Bahraini police statement.

One of the journalists arrested was media freelancer Anna Therese Day who previously did freelance work for various news outfits like CNN, New York Times, Al Jazeera, and CBS.

"Anna and her crew are committed journalists who only want to ensure they could undertake their profession ethically and thoroughly. The allegation that they were ...involved in illegal behavior...is impossible. Anna Day is much loved and missed and we are concerned about her well-being as well as that of her three American colleagues," an official statement calling for the detained Americans' release as quoted by CNN.

The US State Department is already aware of the situation but refused to comment for privacy concerns. The Bahraini security forces, however, firmly asserted that the four-man crew colluded with anti-government protesters in staging attacks on security personnel.

"One of them was masked and taking part with a group of saboteurs in Sitra in acts of rioting and sabotage and attacks on security officials. The other three were arrested at a security checkpoint in the same area," the Bahraini police explained as mentioned in a report by The Guardian.

Bahrain is an island-kingdom populated by Shiite majority- with alleged links to neighboring Iran- but ruled by Sunni-led monarchy.

The Royal Family has been on constant vigilance since the 2011 protests which prompted the country's ruling Sunni minority to request help from fellow Gulf nations Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates to avert any alleged Iran-inspired plot to overthrow the incumbent government.

The protests were part of the larger Arab Spring pro-democracy movement that rippled across the Middle East in the past five years.

"It is sad that the fifth anniversary of the protests is marked by the arrest of yet more journalists in Bahrain, which has since become one of the worst jailers of journalists in the Arab world," remarked Sherif Mansour of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists in a news story by ABC News.