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IRAN’S growing terror network and its proxies that target Bahrain and the rest of the world have been exposed and condemned in a new report by the US government.
The 2020 Country Reports on Terrorism (CRT), released late on Thursday, provides a deep insight into the counterterrorism environment last year.
It points out that while there were ‘no successful terrorist attacks’ in Bahrain last year, domestic forces conducted numerous operations to ‘pre-empt and disrupt attack planning.’
“Iran continued to support acts of terrorism regionally and globally during 2020,” counterterrorism acting co-ordinator John Godfrey said in the report.
“Regionally, Iran backed proxies and partner groups in Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, including Hizbollah and Hamas. Senior Al Qaeda leaders continued to reside in Iran and facilitate terrorist operations from there.
“Globally, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force remained the primary Iranian actors involved in supporting terrorist recruitment, financing and plots across Europe, Africa, Asia and both Americas.”
Bahrain has long accused Iran of funding, training and equipping extremists to carry out a campaign of violence against security personnel in the kingdom, finally cutting diplomatic ties with Tehran in 2016.
The report highlights Iran’s growing interference in Bahrain’s affairs. It also cites court rulings in connection with terror cases including those with links to Tehran.
Special reference has been made to Iran-backed outlawed group Al Ashtar Brigades and Saraya Al Mukhtar.
“In Bahrain, Iran has continued to provide weapons, support and training to local militant groups, including the Al Ashtar Brigades, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisations and Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and Saraya Al Mukhtar, which was designated an SDGT under State Department authorities in 2020,” the report said. More specifically, it mentions that Saraya Al Mukhtar’s goal was to target the Bahrain government – “with the intention of paving the way for Iran.”
“The group has plotted attacks against US personnel in Bahrain and offered cash rewards for the assassination of Bahraini officials,” it added.
The document outlines Bahrain government’s public outreach initiatives such as the community police programme and national campaigns. However, it also indicates the lack of an overall strategic messaging campaign to counter terrorist narratives.
The US report praises Bahrain’s prison reform programme, including the alternative punishment plan that helped thousands of prisoners, especially priority groups and juvenile detainees.
“Prison conditions may increase the likelihood of radicalisation to violence, though alternative or reduced sentencing may reduce the risk of prisoner exposure to violent extremist recruitment and radicalisation,” added the report.
The CRT report is released annually to fulfil an important US Congressional mandate, and the latest research shows that the number of terrorist attacks and fatalities resulting from them increased by more than 10 per cent in 2020 compared with 2019, attributing to growing Islamic States affiliates in several countries.
“Among the many accomplishments highlighted in the 2020 report are our efforts to expand the focus of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS to address new regions of concern, the first terrorist designation of a Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremist (REMVE) group, and the growing number of countries that have recognised the whole of Hizbollah as a terrorist organisation,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during the report’s launch.
Bahrain is a major non-North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally, hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, and participates in US-led security initiatives, including the International Maritime Security Construct to protect commercial shipping in the region. The country is also a member of the Defeat-ISIS Coalition’s Counter-ISIS Finance Group.
The report warns that despite Islamic State losing all territory it had seized in Iraq and Syria, its affiliates continue to branch out globally to carry out deadly attacks – causing more fatalities (outside Iraq and Syria) last year than any previous year.
It further noted a 320pc increase in ‘extreme right-wing terrorism’ globally in the five years preceding 2020.
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic challenges that disrupted terrorist travel, financing, and operations, extremist groups adapted their approaches and appeals using the Internet to continue radicalising others and inspiring attacks worldwide, the report added.
sandy@gdn.com.bh
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