Bahrain Arrests Iraq Returnee With Bomb-making Materials: Interior Ministry

Bahraini security forces have arrested a wanted man bearing bomb-making materials after he returned from Iraq, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday. 

Like its neighbors, Bahrain is concerned that some of the hundreds of Gulf citizens who have joined militant groups fighting civil wars in nearby Iraq and Syria may return and undermine stability at home. 

“Security personnel have arrested a person wanted on security grounds upon his return to the country coming out of Iraq, and seized materials used in carrying out terrorist acts,” the ministry said. 

Without identifying the man or his nationality, the statement said customs officials had stopped him as his bus entered the island kingdom on the causeway that links it to Saudi Arabia. 

A search of his belongings revealed “materials used in the manufacture of bombs and explosives”, the ministry said. 

Bahrain and fellow Sunni Muslim-ruled Gulf monarchies are taking part in an American-led campaign to bomb Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq from the air, and have fought home-grown Islamist radicalisation with surveillance and arrests. 

(Reporting By Farishta Saeed; Writing by Noah Browning; Editing by Kevin Liffey) 

Reuters

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