Bahrain’s recent success in dismantling alleged terrorist networks has been achieved despite the US cancelling its support for anti-terrorism training schemes last year, it has emerged.

Security services in Bahrain have benefited from American anti-terrorist training for almost three decades, but almost all programmes were pulled in 2014, according to a new report by the US State Department.

However, despite the withdrawal of American support Bahrain has gone on to achieve significant successes in counter-terrorism operations this year – specifically targeting rogue groups supported from Iran and Iraq, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

“Bahrain has participated in the ATA (Anti-Terrorism Assistance) programme since 1987, and assistance in 2014 focused on developing the capacity to investigate and respond to terrorists’ use of explosives,” states the US State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2014.

“Leahy vetting challenges, however, prompted the cancellation of nearly all planned ATA courses in 2014.”

America’s Leahy Law prohibits military support for foreign security forces suspected of human rights violations and was used to justify cancelling anti-terrorism training in Bahrain last year, despite extensive reforms initiated after unrest in 2011.

The decision to withdraw support coincided with a spate of high-profile terrorist attacks last year in which five policemen were killed.

However, despite the lack of American support Bahrain on Thursday announced that five people had been arrested in connection with a raid in which large quantities of explosives had been seized from a house in Dar Kulaib.

Police said the explosives were intended for use in terrorist attacks targeting security forces in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and the Interior Ministry said the seized items were the equivalent of 222kg of TNT.

Earlier this month police also arrested 10 people after dismantling the alleged terrorist cell Al Ashtar Brigade.

Meanwhile, 57 men were sentenced to 10 to 25 years behind bars on June 11 for being part of an Iranian-backed terrorist cell that orchestrated a bombing campaign in Bahrain. They were found guilty of arms smuggling and plotting a string of attacks on security personnel and landmark structures, including the Saudi Embassy and King Fahad Causeway,

The State Department report did say the US Embassy in Manama assisted with the delivery of an ATA K9 Train the Trainer course, in which two trainers and eight trainees from Bahrain graduated.

“The Bahraini Coast Guard also contributed to the counter-terrorism mission by monitoring and interdicting the seaborne movement of weapons and terrorists into and out of the country,” it said.

It suggests the lack of a political agreement between the government and the opposition “threatened to fuel further domestic unrest, upon which violent opposition groups could seek to capitalise”, but favourably highlights Bahrain’s public condemnation of the Islamic State (IS).

The report also says Bahrain’s importance as regional financial hub makes it vulnerable to large amounts of money flowing through the Gulf to support terrorists and violent extremist groups.

When he launched the report on Friday US Ambassador-at-Large and Co-ordinator for Counterterrorism Tina Kaidanow said the number of worldwide terrorist attacks last year increased by 35 per cent – with total fatalities up by 81pc compared with 2013.

“Seventy-eight per cent of all fatalities due to terrorist attacks also took place in five countries: Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria,” said the diplomat.

She highlighted the ongoing civil war in Syria as spurring worldwide terrorism, with attacks carried out by IS, Al Qaeda and its affliates.

“Iran continued to sponsor terrorist groups around the world, principally through its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Quds Force,” she said.

“These groups included Lebanese Hizbollah, several Iraqi Shia militant groups, Hamas, and the Palestine-Islamic Jihad.” - TradeArabia News Service