The Sunni Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), made up of oil-rich Persian Gulf countries, has blasted the Shiite Houthi rebels for “staging a coup” in Yemen after they announced on Friday they were dissolving parliament and forming a new government.

The opposition of the GCC reflects the increasing hostility of the mostly Sunni countries to the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who are Shia.

“This Houthis coup is a dangerous escalation which we reject and is unacceptable. It totally contradicts the spirit of pluralism and coexistence which Yemen has known,” the GCC said in statement according to the Kuna news agency.

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Bahrain’s main opposition leader has been charged with attempting to overthrow the government of the western-backed Gulf state – a significant escalation in a crackdown on dissent.

Sheikh Ali Salman, head of the al-Wefaq movement, is to stand trial at the end of the month on charges of “promoting the overthrow and change of the political regime by force”, it was announced in Manama on Monday.

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A Bahraini citizen has been killed and an expatriate wounded by an explosion south-west of Manama, officials say, the second deadly blast in two days.

The interior ministry said the “terrorist” attack took place in the predominantly Shia village of Karzakan.

A Jordanian police officer was killed late on Monday in nearby Damistan.

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Opposition groups condemn attack involving remotely detonated bomb during protest in village west of the capital Manama.

Three policemen have been killed by a remotely detonated bomb in Bahrain during a protest in a village west of the capital Manama, the Interior Ministry has said, in one of the worst incidents of violence in recent months. 

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