Manama: The security situation in Bahrain is stable following the intensification of efforts and the coordination of operations last year to limit escalations, the interior ministry said on Sunday.
The authorities carried out 105 security missions, including the search of 42 sites and warehouses, referred 290 fugitives and suspects to the Public Prosecution and seized a large quantity of weapons, equipment and explosives, Shaikh Rashid Bin Abdullah Al Khalifa said as he highlighted some of the most salient public security-related developments in 2017 at a meeting with public figures, religious scholars and legislators.
The minister who was talking as part of the ministry's strategy to reinforce partnership and interaction with the community said a comprehensive operation was launched last year to gather information about active cells in coordination with the National Security Agency and other security agencies.
The operation continued for several months and even as it was going on, some acts of terrorism, such as the November oil pipeline blast in the village of Buri south of the capital Manama, occurred, he said.
The operation showed that terror cells were responsible for storing weapons and bomb-making material and for transporting and distributing bombs and cash, Shaikh Rashid said, displaying envelopes containing BD50 that were distributed as rewards to those carrying out acts of vandalism and terrorism.
The cells are run by individuals in Iran who coordinate with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the Popular Mobilisation Forces in Iraq and Hezbollah in Lebanon to train terrorists, he said.
The activities of the members running the cells in Bahrain were not limited to the operation, only but also included previous cases.
"Following vigorous work, the targets were identified and a security plan was put in place to target risks and threats to the homeland on the security map. It was the most important preventive security operation and essentially achieved the arrest of 47 main terrorists. Most of them are members of three terror groups - Saraya Al Ashtar, Saraya Al Muqawama Al Shaabiya and Saraya Al Mukhtarthat- have been internationally designated as terrorist organisations and their members as terrorists."
The operation resulted in arresting dangerous fugitives accused in earlier terrorist crimes and the foiling of terrorist crimes including attempts to assassinate officials and public figures, arson, vandalism and targeting policemen and oil installations.
"Those arrested were referred to the Public Prosecutor’s office which would release the details of its investigations later," the minister said.
He added that individuals implicated in acts of terror would be held legally accountable.
"If the countries in which they live do not cooperate with Interpol and ignore the Red Notice or bilateral coordination, then those individuals will have no civil rights or the right to stay among us," he said.
