Hundreds of Omani protesters seeking jobs and better wages clashed with security forces in the industrial town of Sohar on Friday, hurling rocks as the military fired in the air to try to disperse them. The clashes, which witnesses said police brought to a halt with water cannon, came three days after a crackdown on protesters to try to clear a main Sohar roundabout where around 100 people had been camped out for weeks.
Activists told Reuters security forces used tear gas and beat some protesters with batons. Two protesters said at least one person died but hospital sources said no one had been killed. Two of the eight people brought in for injuries were in critical condition, they said. Protests against autocratic rulers sweeping the region have not spared conservative and usually tranquil Oman, at the south-east end of the Arabian Peninsula.