Several people were wounded and dozens arrested Friday as Kuwaiti police used tear gas, water cannons and batons to disperse stateless protesters demanding citizenship, witnesses and a rights group said. Hundreds of riot police backed by armoured vehicles assaulted several hundred protesters who braved a stern interior ministry warning not to demonstrate as authorities promised to resolve their decades-old plight. Police chased the protesters into the streets of Jahra, northwest of the capital Kuwait City, and arrested many of them, including a 13-year-old boy, the independent Kuwait Association of Human Rights said on its Twitter account.
A number of young protesters were seen with their heads bleeding after they were beaten with batons by riot police, witnesses said. Private Al-Watan TV channel said its photographer was wounded. Stateless people, officially known as illegal residents or bidoons, have been demonstrating over the past several weeks for their rights. Kuwait’s interior ministry issued three statements this week warning them not to do so or face punishment.