Manama: Police in Bahrain have seized bomb-making materials and weapons after arresting five suspects on terrorism charges, the interior ministry has said.
The investigation revealed that suspects who had received intensive military training in Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Iraqi Hezbollah camps had planned bombings in several locations in Bahrain and that they had turned their homes into additional storage areas for bomb-making materials, the ministry said in a statement late on Thursday.
The investigation is continuing in order to identify additional members of the group and bring them to justice, it added.
Giving details about the case, the ministry said that bomb squad and forensic teams were deployed to the relevant locations after the Public Prosecution was notified about the plots and legal proceedings were taken.
The forensic team collected items suspected to be explosives and moved them to a safe location, away from the residential area where they were being stored. The crime scene team classified them in the presence of the Public Prosecution.
Weapons, remote control and communication devices and batteries typically used in the detonation of bombs as well as e-boards, mobile phones, telephone chips, electronic keys and wires were among the items seized. The police also confiscated daggers, knives covered with polyurethane bags and various currencies.
The ministry said that five suspects were arrested.
Mohammad Abdul Jalil Mahdi Jassim Abdullah, a 28-year-old private company employee, received military training in Iran that included the use of pistol and automatic weapons, such as Kalashnikov and PKG, the statement said.
“He also received training in bomb-making and assembly and in the use of explosives such as TNT and C4. Ali Ahmad Al Musawi, living in Iran, coordinated the training and provided Mohammed with logistical support.”
In addition to the weapons and explosives training he received abroad in 2013, the suspect also watched films of bombings conducted by the Hezbollah brigades in Iraq.
The investigations revealed that when Mohammad returned to Bahrain following the training, he decided with others to use a car repair workshop in Hamad Town, south west of the capital Manama, to store bomb-making materials and weapons.
The group built a special room to hide the contraband.
Mahmood Jassim Marhoon Mohammed Marhoon, a 26-year-old private company employee, received military training in Iran by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and in Iraq by the Hezbollah brigades.
Jassim Mansoor Jassim Shamloh, 25, confessed to receiving batteries from the first suspect to be used in bomb-making and remote control devices. The private company employee hid the items in his father’s home in Hamad Town until the first suspect asked for them, the ministry said.
Ahmad Mohammed Ali Yousuf, 23, confessed to providing assistance to the third suspect by transferring the batteries, remote controls and wires for making bombs to his flat with full knowledge of their nature and purpose.
Khalil Hassan Khalil Ibrahim Saeed, a student, received a number of batteries and remote controlled bomb detonators from the first suspect who asked him to hide them at his home. The 20-year-old had full knowledge of the nature and purpose of the items.
The Interior Ministry's counterterrorism investigations continue as part of the ongoing national security operations, the ministry said.
