Iraq urged to cease exporting terrorism to Bahrain, Minister

Muhannad Mansour

muhannad@dt.bh

Manama 

Stating on his official Twitter page yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa criticized how Iraq is embracing such terrorist activities, which are meant to target Bahrain, especially during the time when the Kingdom is fighting abroad against the Islamic State terrorist organisation to defend Iraq. “We expect a serious stance from Iraq against who trains and smuggles terrorism into Bahrain,” the minister tweeted.

In a statement to DT News yesterday, the minister expressed, “This operation clearly shows the difficulty of the situations in the region. It’s sad that Bahraini youth are mislead in this manner, by receiving training abroad on using the deadliest weapons and to come back and use them against their own country.  Our main mission is to protect the youth from such influence and not to lose more of our youth.”

 Group’s social media accounts quite after the operation

During the past three years, Al Ahstar Brigades have been active on social media accounts, mainly on their pages on Facebook and Twitter. They would usually claim responsibility of terrorist attacks and brag about murdering policemen. However, the group’s pages were strangely quite yesterday, with many of them being thrown behind bars, thanks to Interior Ministry.

Al Ashtar previously launched several terrorist attacks against policemen and civilians alike, causing casualties and injuries.

They were responsible for detonating a parked vehicle in the parking lots of Shaikh Isa bin Salman Mosque in Riffa, while worshippers were performing prayers on July, 2013, during the Holy Month of Ramadan.

They were also responsible for Al Daih Blast on March 3, which killed Emirati officer First Lieutenant Tariq Al Shehhi, 41, Yemeni Ammar Abdu Ali Al Dhalei, 35 and Pakistani Muhammad Arslan Ramzan, 22, in addition to injuring seven other policemen, using remotely detonated bombs.

Exclusive facts from the case

-      The suspects admitted the group was formed by two fugitives, currently residing in Qum City, Iran

-      Fadhil Ali travelled to Iraq from India, where he was studiying

-      They were trained in using  Ak-47, RPG rocket launchers