Bahrain: A Bahraini group is allegedly among 30 Shi’ite militias supporting the regime of President Bashar Al Assad in Syria, according to reports.
UK-based news website Middle East Eye lists Saraya Al Mukhtar (The Chosen Brigades) among Shi’ite militias active in Syria, along with others from Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan and Lebanon.
It quotes former members of the Syrian armed forces, who claim that the Syrian army has been taken over by militias loyal to Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hizbollah.
“One important thing to realise is that there is no Syrian army anymore, it is just militias, mostly Iranians and Lebanese,” says Khaled Al Shami, who is described as a former Syrian soldier now in Lebanon.
The GDN reported last week that a man on trial for a bombing that targeted police in Bahrain in April last year said Saraya Al Mukhtar had supplied materials used in rioting and making bombs here.
IntelCentre Database, a US company that provides counter-terrorism intelligence, last month identified the same group as being one of at least seven active terrorist outfits in Bahrain that target security forces.
In May last year, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy also named the group as being one of three involved in violence in Bahrain.
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