Cell Planning Attacks in Bahrain Busted

A cell planning attacks in the Sunni-dominated Gulf kingdom of Bahrain troubled by a Shiite-led opposition movement, has been broken up, the interior ministry spokesman said on Saturday.

Four members of the cell were detained in Qatar and turned over to Manama, while a fifth Bahraini was arrested inside the country, spokesman General Tareq al-Hasan said.

The alleged targets were the interior ministry, the Saudi embassy and a causeway linking the two countries.

Hasan said 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.

"They then confessed that they had left Bahrain illegally at the instigation of others and gone to Iran" to form an "organization to commit armed terrorist acts in Bahrain," he added.

Sent back to Manama on November 4, they denounced a fifth accomplice, who was subsequently arrested, and the five have been turned over to the judicial authorities.

Earlier this year, Bahrain's monarchy crushed pro-democracy protests, spearheaded by the majority Shiites, with the help of troops from other Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia.

Twenty-four people died during the month-long crackdown, according to official figures from Manama.

Four protesters have since died in custody.

The opposition says 40 people were killed.