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BOATS, EXPLOSIVES SEIZED

Major-General Tariq Al-Hassan. Image: Courtesy BNA

Bahrain foils new 'terror' attempts

Manama, December 30, 2013

Bahraini authorities have foiled an attempt to smuggle explosives and arms, some made in Iran and Syria, into the country by boat, the kingdom's public security chief said on Monday.

Bahrain has faced bouts of unrest since February 2011 by anti-government protesters.

"According to the investigations, which revealed plans to carry out terrorist acts, security deployment has been intensified," Major-General Tariq Al-Hassan said in comments published by the official news agency BNA.

He said security forces had also dismantled a car bomb in the Hoora area east of Manama, seized a weapons and explosive cache and arrested 13 people, including a Saudi Arabian national, trying to flee the country by boat.

He said Coast Guard patrols, based on earlier information, foiled the infiltration and smuggling of arms and ammunition through the sea border into the kingdom.

Using the Coast Guard radar, a boat was located 118 marine miles off north eastern Bahrain, in international waters, sailing towards the kingdom, Al Hassan said.

The target was followed until it entered the kingdom's territorial waters in eastern Al Jarem, and with the support of the police air patrols, it was seized two nautical miles away from the Karranah village coast, the major general said. Two Bahrainis were on board of the boat.

The contraband seized included 38 explosives, 12 EFP armour-piercing explosives, six explosive devices containing magnets, 30 Nokia mobile phones with batteries, a satellite phone with SIM card, 29 circuit boards to be fixed on mobile phones in order to set off bombs, a PK machine gun and 12 cartridges, a large number of machine gun bullets, two boxes containing a large number of ignition capsules, 50 Iranian made hand bombs and 295 commercial detonators on which it was written "made in Syria", he said.

In the operation that involved a bid to smuggle wanted criminals out of the country, the authorities located a boat with a number a people aboard heading out of the coast of Karranah village towards the north. The boat was followed and stopped 10 marine miles off the kingdom's coastline, the major general said. Thirteen wanted people in security cases were aboard and one of them was a Saudi national.

Al Hassan said that they had been carrying their passports, different currencies, mobile phones, as well as clothes and personal belongings.

He said a warehouse full of explosives and ammunition was also located in Al Qurrayah village, he added. - Reuters and TradeArabia News Service

 




Tags: Bahrain | Terror | Boat |

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