Bahrain Mirror (AFP): Two Bahraini policemen were wounded in clashes with protesters in the hometown of a jailed Shiite opposition chief, according to an interior ministry statement in the Gulf kingdom.

"Security forces confronted groups of saboteurs in Bilad al-Qadim," the ministry said in a statement posted late Thursday on Twitter.

The "saboteurs" hurled Molotov cocktails at the policemen wounding two, it added.

Bahraini authorities usually refer to protesters as "saboteurs".

Sunni-ruled Bahrain has been shaken by unrest since it quelled a month-long, Shiite-led uprising demanding reforms in 2011.

But protesters still frequently clash with police in Shiite villages outside the capital Manama.

Bilad al-Qadim is the hometown of Shiite opposition chief Sheikh Ali Salman, currently serving a four-year jail sentence for inciting disobedience.

On Thursday, a Bahraini court jailed 19 Shiites for attacks against police, including five life sentences, according to a judicial source.

The Shiite-majority kingdom, connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway, lies across the Gulf from Shiite Iran and is home to the US Fifth Fleet.