Dubai: Assailants hurled Molotov cocktails at a Bahraini police post in a village near the capital Manama overnight, an interior ministry official said on Tuesday.

Security forces “repulsed the terrorist attack against the police post in Sitra,” the official said, quoted by the BNA state news agency.

He said the attack damaged “several stores in a shopping centre”. There was no mention of any casualties.

Attacks on the security forces have intensified in the kingdom, mainly in Shiite-populated villages surrounding the capital.

Last month, assailants firebombed a police car in the Manama suburb of Hamad Town, only days after an explosion wounded a policeman in Diah village.

A bomb in the same village killed three policemen in March, the bloodiest attack on security forces since the start of Shiite-led unrest in February 2011.

Bahrain remains deeply divided three years after the quelled uprising, with persistent protests sparking clashes with police, scores of activists jailed on “terror” charges and reconciliation talks deadlocked.

The International Federation for Human Rights says at least 89 people have been killed in Bahrain since February 2011.