Bahrain says seizes explosives meant for use in Saudi Arabia

Bahrain said on Thursday it had seized explosives and bomb-making materials earmarked for use in Bahrain and neighboring Saudi Arabia in what it described as an Iranian attempt to use Bahraini borders as a base for attacking targets in the region. Police chief Major-General Tariq al-Hasan said the methods used to assemble the explosives bore "clear similarities" to those of what he called proxy groups of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sunni Muslim-ruled Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, often accuses Iran, a Shi'ite Muslim theocracy, of seeking to subvert the Gulf Arab island monarchy. Iran denies interfering in Bahrain, although it acknowledges it does support opposition groups seeking greater political and economic rights for Bahrain's Shi'ite community.   Reuters