MANAMA, 23 June 2004 — Bahrain yesterday arrested six suspected Al-Qaeda militants who were allegedly preparing to carry out terrorist attacks in the country.
The arrested are brothers Yasser Abdullah Kamal and Omar Abdullah Kamal, Bassam Al-Ali, Bassam Bokhowa, brothers Mohedinne Mahmoud Khan and Ali Mahmoud Khan.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashed in Abdullah Al-Khalifa said in a statement carried by the Bahrain News Agency that the six Bahrainis were arrested to thwart “terrorist operations that would have threatened lives and property”.
The arrests follow a Friday warning by the US State Department about the possibility of militant attacks in the Gulf region.
Sheikh Rashed said the attorney general would take up the case after investigations were complete.
A lawyer for the men said earlier that they had been arrested before dawn and that it was unclear why they had been taken in.
Police also searched the home of Sheikh Mohammad Saleh and confiscated documents, books and computer discs, but he was not detained as at first thought.
Hashim said three of the detainees had been rounded up last year on suspicion of belonging to a militant cell believed to be linked to Al-Qaeda, but they had been released without charge.
