Bahrain Police Targeted in Bombing Days After Arms Smuggling Plot Foiled

On July 28, two police officers were killed and another five were injured in a bombing in Bahrain.

Bahrain, located in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Saudi Arabia, is made up of 30 small islands. The country is ruled by the Sunni Al Khalifa monarchy, but the majority of the population is Shia. The July 28 blast occurred on the majority-Shia island of Sitra, located just south of Bahrain’s capital Manama.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The bombing comes just three days after Bahrain announced that it foiled an arms smuggling plot on July 25 by two Bahrainis with links to Iran. Also on July 25, it recalled its ambassador to Tehran, saying that Iran has repeatedly made hostile statements.

The two suspects in the foiled arms smuggling plot, Mahdi Subah Abdulmohsen Mohammed and Abas Abdulhussain Abdullah Mohammed, admitted to receiving explosives, weapons, and ammunition from Iranians outside of waters under Bahraini control. One also received training from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2013.

Iran publicly denies accusations that it is involved in Bahrain, but at the same time it admits to supporting opposition groups fighting on behalf of Bahrain’s Shiite majority. Shia anti-government groups have used bombs to target the police in the past, and protesters have been active since an unsuccessful Arab Spring uprising four years ago. They say that the government discriminates against its Shia population and tortures protesters. Though the opposition is largely peaceful, violent groups have risen to prominence, and many of them use the same symbolism as other Iranian proxy organizations, like Hezbollah, in their public statements.

The Bahraini government has implicated Iran in the July 28 bombing, because explosives used in the attack resembled those recovered in the arms smuggling bust on July 25.

Bahrain often accuses Iran of being involved in Shiite uprisings, and Iranian involvement is unsurprising. Bahrain is strategically located in the Persian Gulf, is allied with Saudi Arabia (Iran’s greatest regional competitor), and is oil-rich. It supports the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen against the dominant Shia Houthis, backed by Iran, to restore the Sunni government to power. It also supports the US-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Additionally, the US Navy’s fifth fleet, which is responsible for security in the Gulf, is based in Bahrain.

Through proxy wars between Saudi Arabia and Iran, sectarian strife is growing in the Middle East. Bahrain’s ties to Saudi Arabia but strategic importance to Iran has the potential to turn it into the next sectarian battlefront. The US must closely monitor the situation there due to the importance of its own naval presence in Bahrain, which works to instill order and to keep the shipping routes of the Persian Gulf safe.