MANAMA — Authorities in Bahrain announced on Thursday the arrest of seven people suspected of carrying out or plotting attacks in the country.
Five of those detained were believed to have formed a cell of the Al-Ashtar Brigades militant group and were accused of being behind three attacks on the armed forces, said security chief Gen. Tarek Al-Hassan.
The two other people arrested were accused of carrying out surveillance in preparation for attacks on the security forces.
He said the arrests were made during a proactive security operation codenamed "The Axe".
Explosives and chemicals used to make homemade bombs were seized during the operation.
"The operation was successful, with several terrorists detained. In addition, bomb making equipment and high grade explosives were discovered and neutralized in an intelligence-led raid on a suspected storage site in Al-Dair," the Bahrain News Agency (BNA) reported.
It said a preliminary investigation revealed that members of the terrorist group had filmed bomb-making experiments and then sent those videos to known terrorist leaders in Iran to improve manufacturing operations.
After the Public Prosecutor was notified and the appropriate security and legal procedures had been undertaken, counter-terrorism and anti-explosive teams were deployed to the site to take the necessary steps to secure the area, BNA said.
The forensic team gathered samples of the explosives to determine their types in order to remove them to a safe location. — SG/Agencies
