Oman troops firing warning shots, one wounded

A groups of some 300 people were demanding jobs and political reforms in the northern city of Sohar, when Oman troops fired warning shots at the crowd. Witnesses claim the man was shot whilst he was trying “to calm the army down”.

The witnesses went on say the crowd dispersed but then regrouped at a roundabout near the port in Sohar and the troops pulled back.

Last Saturday, Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said reshuffled his cabinet in an attempt to appease the protestors. He also promised 50,000 jobs, unemployment benefits of £239 a month and to study widening the power of a quasi-parliamentary advisory council.

On Sunday, according to doctors and nurses, some six people were killed in Sohar when police opened fire on demonstrators who were throwing stones, after failing to disperse them with batons and tear gas.

However the Health Minister claimed only one person died.