Witnesses in the Persian Gulf Sultanate of Oman say security forces killed two demonstrators Sunday after firing rubber bullets into a crowd demanding political reforms.
The clashes Sunday between police and stone-throwing protesters occurred in the town of Sohar, about 200 kilometers northwest of the capital, Muscat.
Oman's state news agency confirmed the clashes and said the police were protecting the people and their property.
Reports from Oman said protesters, numbering in the hundreds, had set fire to a police station and at least one other government building.
Sultan Qaboos shuffled his Cabinet on Saturday, in an apparent bid to head off the type of protests for political change sweeping other countries in the Arab world.
