Bahrain Judiciary Links Busted 'Terrorist' Cell to Iran
The Bahraini judiciary on Sunday linked an alleged busted "terrorist" cell to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, a day after announcing the arrest of five Bahrainis planning attacks in the Arab kingdom.
The five men are accused of belonging to a "terrorist group" with ties to the intelligence services of a foreign state, a judiciary spokesman said, quoted by state news agency BNA.
He said the five were to be "sent to Iran to receive military training," notably with the elite Revolutionary Guards.
On Saturday, the interior ministry said a cell had been broken up that was planning to attack the ministry, the Saudi embassy in Riyadh and the causeway which links the archipelago state to Saudi Arabia.
Citing alleged confessions from the suspects, the judiciary spokesman said the cell had been set up by two men he named as Abdul Raouf al-Shaieb and Ali Mashaima, living abroad, through contacts with the five accused.
"They coordinated with military structures abroad, including the Revolutionary Guards ... in Iran to train the recruits of the group in handling arms and explosives," he said, without giving further details of the two alleged masterminds.
The spokesman said the plan was launched by sending cell members in small groups to Iran, but it was unclear if those arrested had been the first earmarked for an Iranian trip.
Four members of the cell were detained in Qatar and turned over to Manama, according to the interior ministry, which said the fifth Bahraini was arrested inside the country.
The four arrested in Qatar had been traveling by car from Saudi Arabia.
Authorities seized "documents and a computer containing information of a security nature (and) details on certain vital sites," as well as dollars and Iranian rials," an interior ministry spokesman said.
"They then confessed that they had left Bahrain illegally at the instigation of others," planning to travel on to Iran via Qatar and Syria, to form an "organization to commit armed terrorist acts in Bahrain," he added.
Source: Agence France Presse
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