ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Four Bahraini nationals have been arrested over their alleged collaboration with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Manama’s interior ministry announced on Thursday, adding that a fifth suspect has also been identified.
In a statement carried by the state-run Bahrain News Agency (BNA), the ministry said the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Forensic Science “managed to arrest four Bahraini individuals and identify a fifth suspect who is a fugitive abroad” over their involvement in “communicating and coordinating” with the IRGC through “terrorist elements located in Iran.”
Authorities said “investigations revealed that the first suspect, acting on organizational instructions and with assistance from the others, photographed and collected coordinates of vital and sensitive locations across the Kingdom of Bahrain using high-precision imaging equipment.
“The materials were then sent to the IRGC through encrypted applications,” the statement added.
The suspects - four men and one woman aged between 22 and 36 - have had the necessary legal procedures taken against them and have been referred to the public prosecution, the ministry said.
The development comes as the Iran-Israel-US war entered its thirteenth day on Thursday, after Washington and Tel Aviv launched a joint campaign against Iran on February 28, with bombardments largely targeting security and military installations.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said earlier on Thursday that its forces have struck more than 5,500 targets in Iran since the beginning of the operation, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, noting that the campaign aims to dismantle Tehran’s security apparatus.
In response, Iran launched a multi-front retaliation to the US-Israeli campaign, deploying hundreds of drones as well as ballistic and cruise missiles against alleged US targets across the region, including in all six Gulf Cooperation Council states - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Bahrain - which hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet - has been a primary target of the Iranian retaliatory strikes as the first wave began hours after the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, with missiles hitting the Juffair area of Manama. The strikes reportedly caused structural damage to the fleet’s service center, including radomes and communications terminals.
The Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) General Command on Tuesday reported the interception of 106 missiles and 176 drones launched from Iranian territory since late February.
In early March, debris from an intercepted missile killed a shipyard worker at Mina Salman Port and set the American oil tanker MT Stena Imperative ablaze. On Tuesday, a direct drone strike on a residential building in the Seef district of Manama killed a 29-year-old woman and injured eight others.
Other strikes have targeted public infrastructure, including a desalination plant on Muharraq Island and a university building, in what the Bahraini government has condemned as “indiscriminate aggression.”
Manama led a regional diplomatic effort at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), drafting Resolution 2817, which was adopted on Thursday, condemning Iran’s “egregious attacks” and calls for an immediate halt to hostilities against sovereign Gulf states.
Of note, Qatar said last week it captured two cells comprising around a dozen suspects reportedly working for the IRGC, noting that the purported operatives were assigned to carry out “espionage and subversion missions.”
RELATED: Qatar says it captured IRGC-linked spy cells as Tehran ups attacks on US Gulf bases
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