Bahrain announced on Monday the arrest of individuals who planned to carry out terrorist operations, along with the seizure of weapons and explosives sourced from Iran. The Bahraini Ministry of Interior tweeted: "As part of security efforts to maintain national security and in a preemptive security operation in cooperation with the National Intelligence Agency, the Investigation and Criminal Evidence Department, we apprehended terrorist elements who were in the process of planning and preparing for terrorist operations targeting security and public order."
It added: "Weapons and explosives from Iran were seized from those individuals linked to terrorist groups based in Iran." Bahrain has previously succeeded in thwarting operations backed by Iran that targeted its national security.
In July 2015, the Bahraini Ministry of Interior announced the thwarting of an attempt to smuggle weapons by two citizens connected to Iran. At that time, the ministry stated that the detainees confessed to receiving a shipment that included explosives, automatic weapons, and ammunition from Iranians outside Bahrain's territorial waters. The ministry noted that one of the detainees had trained at a camp belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in 2013.
In June of the same year, Bahrain confiscated explosives and materials used in bomb-making that were intended for use in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. At that time, Bahrain described the operation as an Iranian attempt to use its borders as a base to attack targets in the region.
