Bahrain has arrested five suspects on charges of “collecting and passing sensitive and precise information to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) through terrorist elements based in Iran,” its Interior Ministry reported Sunday. A sixth suspect is a fugitive abroad, it said.
This was the second round of arrests in a week. Bahrain had arrested four people accused of spying, Saudi-based newspaper Arab News reported last Thursday.
In the latest rounds of arrests, “the Interior Ministry announced that the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Forensic Science has arrested five individuals and identified a sixth, a fugitive abroad, for their involvement in collecting and passing sensitive and precise information to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps through terrorist elements based in Iran, as well as recruiting terrorist operatives to take part in carrying out terrorist plots against Bahrain,” Bahrain News Agency reported.
“These acts were intended to undermine the state’s sovereignty, target security authorities and economic entities, spread fear and panic among citizens and residents, and risk the country’s security and safety,” the Interior Ministry said.
The six suspects range in age from 25 to 39, the report said. Two of them appeared to be members of the same family or at least share the same last name: Ahmed Yousif Jassim Sarhan, who is said to be a “fugitive abroad,” and Yousif Ahmed Mansoor Sarhan.
“According to the confession of the first suspect, whose criminal record indicates his involvement in terrorist crimes during previous years, he had received intensive training at IRGC camps in trafficking persons and recruiting operatives to participate in implementing terrorist plots,” the Interior Ministry said.
“He and the other suspects also photographed and recorded coordinates of several vital locations, as well as certain hotels in Bahrain, and sent those images and coordinates to the IRGC, which assisted in the targeting of those sites during the Iranian aggression,” it said.
The arrests have also been reported on by other regional media outlets.
“Bahrain announced the arrest of five people for participating in, collecting, and passing on accurate information to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard,” UAE-based news site Al-Ain News reported.
On March 12, Arab News reported: “Bahrain has detained four citizens suspected of spying for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on Gulf states show no signs of letting up.” The report included the names of the four suspects and a fifth, who it said was abroad.
'Acting on IRGC instructions'
The investigation accused the suspects of “acting on IRGC instructions, using high-resolution equipment to photograph and record coordinates of vital locations in Bahrain, and transmitting the data to the IRGC via encrypted software,” Arab News reported, adding that one of the suspects in the detentions last week is a woman.
Bahrain is a member of the Abraham Accords and is also a close ally of the US. It hosts a US naval base. It is a small country and has a large Shi’ite population.
Iran has threatened Bahrain in the past and sought to recruit agents among its population. In 2011, when protests erupted in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia sent troops to intervene.
“The United States imposed sanctions on four individuals in Iran for aiding the Bahrain-based, US-designated terrorist group al-Ashtar Brigades, the Treasury Department said in a statement,” London-based newspaper Arab Weekly reported in March 2024.
The Ashtar Brigades was designated as a terrorist group by the US in 2018. In 2024, the Iran-backed terrorist group claimed it had targeted Israel.