Iran-backed Bahraini group claims second attack on Israel
A drone is launched during a military exercise in an undisclosed location in Iran, in this handout image obtained on October 4, 2023.
An Iranian-backed terrorist group in Bahrain claims to have targeted Israel a second time. JPost first reported on May 2 that the “Islamic Resistance in Bahrain, Saraya Al-Ashtar” claimed it had targeted Israel. The group alleged via pro-Iran media such as Al-Mayadeen that on April 27 it had targeted an Israeli company in Eilat. There is no evidence that the group’s attacks, which it claims involved drones, have taken place or been successful. The group posted an undated video showing a drone being launched.
Now Iran’s IRNA reported on May 4 that the group said it had carried out a second attack targeting Eilat. “The Bahraini resistance group, Al-Ashtar Brigades, has announced its second attack on Israeli positions in support of the Palestinian people in war-ravaged Gaza,” IRNA claimed.
The group has been sanctioned as a terrorist group by the US. Bahrain is a member of the Abraham Accords. Bahrain has a Shi’ite minority and Iran has often sought to influence the Shi’ite community in Bahrain and stir up trouble in the Kingdom. Iran has done the same among Shi’ites in Saudi Arabia.
Iran attempting regional destabilization
Iran likely is pushing the Bahrain group to make these claims during the 15th Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Banjul, Gambia, where Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian is pushing countries to cut ties with Israel. As such Iran appears to be trying to operationalize a new “front” against Israel.
Iran already uses Hamas in Gaza, Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the West Bank, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq and Syria to attack Israel. Iran also attacked Israel on April 13-14. Iran’s foreign minister met with his Saudi counterparts in Gambia on may 4. Iran may be trying to send a message it can destabilize Bahrain, a close ally of Saudi Arabia, and it is pushing this terrorist proxy to make these claims in that light.
THE SECRETARIES-GENERAL of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (left) and the Arab League, with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister between them, hold a news conference at the joint Arab-Islamic summit in Riyadh, on November 11 (credit: AHMED YOSRI/ REUTERS)
THE SECRETARIES-GENERAL of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (left) and the Arab League, with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister between them, hold a news conference at the joint Arab-Islamic summit in Riyadh, on November 11 (credit: AHMED YOSRI/ REUTERS)
According to IRNA, the “Al-Ashtar Brigades stressed in its statement that it will continue attacks against the Israeli regime until it stops its war on Gaza and lift its blockade of the Palestinian territory.” The Iranian media also claimed that the “Bahraini resistance group carried out its first anti-Israel attack on April 30, targeting Eilat Port with drones.” The April 30 date appears different than the April 27 date that the group claimed on Thursday.
It is not clear why Iranian media has now reported two different dates. The Iranian media admitted that other groups in the region, “including those in Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon have also hit Israeli targets in the past months in an effort to force the regime to halt its genocidal war on Gaza.”
Iran is clearly trying to set the region aflame and using its proxies to do so. It is admitting this openly as part of its goal to change the regional order and use the October 7 attack as part of a shift in the new world order that Iran believes is arriving.