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Bahrain Says It Smashed Five-Man Terror Network
Bahrain said it has broken up a terror ring of five people who were plotting attacks, an official spokesman said Saturday, February 15. "Bahraini security forces broke up a cell that had been plotting terrorist acts ... targeting the kingdom's national interests and endangering the lives of innocent citizens," said the spokesman. It was the first time the small Gulf kingdom has announced the arrest of Bahraini "terrorists" on its soil since the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States.
Not the first time they've been there, but the first time they've caught them...
Mukhtar al-Bakri, a U.S. citizen of Yemeni descent allegedly connected to the al-Qaeda network, gave himself up to U.S. authorities in Bahrain in September last year and was transferred to the United States.
But this is a different bunch...
Security forces "seized arms and ammunition" which members of the cell "planned to use to carry out terrorist acts against the security of the country and its citizens," the spokesman said. The five suspects are were arrested three days ago, a senior Bahraini official told AFP. Pistols, machineguns and ammunition were found in their possession, he said. Investigations were under way to "establish if the cell is linked to groups inside or outside Bahrain," the official added, in a reference to the al-Qaeda organization of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden.
Ummm... Look at the names and origins of those arrested...
Terror charges were in the past mostly leveled at members of the majority Shiite Muslim community in Sunni-ruled Bahrain. The identification of the cell members as Sunnis appeared meant to point to a connection with Bin Laden supporters.
As opposed to a connection with Iran...
The official spokesman identified the members of the cell as Mohieddin Mahmud Mohieddin Khan, born in Lebanon in 1961; Bassam Abderrazzak Abdullah Bukhua, born in 1970; Bassam Yussef Abdelkarim Ali, 1956; Issa Abdullah Abderrahman al-Baluchi, born in the Saudi city of al-Khobar in 1972; and Jamal Hilal Mohammad al-Baluchi, 1965.
See what I mean about the names and origins? A "Lebanese" named "Mohieddin Khan" — an unusual name for Lebanon, pretty common in Pakland and Afghanistan; you can't chuck a rock in either country without hitting a Khan. Two are "al-Baluchis," one of them originating in Khobar. It says Gulf States, and it smells Pakistani, on a Soddy leash.

FOLLOWUP:
FoxNews says that two of those arrested are members of the Bahrani military. Is this also starting to smell like the Qatar coup?

Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-02-15
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=10267