Bahrain Says Iran-Backed Terror Attack Foiled

The allegations oddly parallel with recent, far-fetched US claims of Iranian terror plots

Authorities in Bahrain claim they have arrested an Iran-backed terror cell that was planning to attack Bahraini and Saudi government targets and a bridge that connects both countries.

Bahraini leaders have long sought to characterize the pro-democracy uprising as an Iranian ploy for influence in the Shia-majority, Sunni-led Gulf state. But Bahrain’s public prosecutor’s allegations that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was behind a terrorist plot is even more dubious after the U.S.’s far-fetched story about an Iranian plot to kill a Saudi Ambassador on U.S. soil.

The five suspects will be held in custody for 60 days while investigations continue. According to Bahrain’s state news service, they are being charged with forming a terror group, obstructing government institutions from functioning, and jeopardizing the Kingdom of Bahrain’s public security and territorial integrity. Bahraini authorities gave no further information or any evidence for their claims.

Iran has categorically denied the allegations and Bahrain’s majority Shias say they have no political links to Shia groups in Iran.

It would seem that Bahrain’s allegations are erratic attempts to blame the unrest on outside aggression, given that they also accused the Lebanon-based Shia group Hezbollah of being behind the foiled terror attack, accusations which Hezbollah denied as “baseless” and another “one of the fabrications [weaved] by the Al-Khalifa authoritarian regime in Bahrain.”

Bahrain continues to forcefully suppress the peaceful uprising, already having sentenced scores of people for anti-state crimes – just as the supposed terri cell is – such as trying to overthrow the ruling system.

Author: John Glaser

John Glaser writes for Antiwar.com.