DUBAI: Bahraini authorities said yesterday they have seized a boat smuggling explosives made in Iran and Syria into the kingdom, which quashed a Shia-led uprising 

in 2011.

The boat, which had two Bahrainis aboard, was stopped over the weekend at 3.7 kilometres off the archipelago’s coast, public security chief 

Major-General Tareq Al Hasan said.

He said it had been tracked over a distance of 218 kilometres northeast of the kingdom.

“Fifty hand grenades made in Iran,” as well as “295 fuses connected to switches labelled as made in Syria,” were found in the 29-foot vessel, he said in a statement carried by state news agency BNA.

Dozens of C4 and TNT explosive devices were also found on the boat, he said, without providing details about the source of the alleged shipment.

Hasan said that security forces also discovered a cache of explosives in a village outside Manama, dismantled a car bomb and arrested 13 wanted people, including a Saudi national, as they attempted to flee Bahrain in a boat.

Bahrain crushed an Arab Spring-inspired uprising led by members of its Shia majority in 2011. Since then demonstrations have regularly been held in Shia villages around the capital, often sparking clashes with security forces.

At least 89 people have been killed in Bahrain since the protests began, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.

Several bomb attacks have also taken place in recent months, including one that targetted a Sunni mosque close to the royal court in July but caused no casualties.

Tensions escalated over the weekend as authorities interrogated top Shia opposition leader Ali Salman.

The head of the main Shia bloc Al-Wefaq was released after a day of questioning, but was charged with incitement to religious hatred and spreading false news endangering national security.

AFP