IS calls for attacks on US bases in uneasy island of Bahrain
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The Islamic State group is calling on its followers to launch attacks in Bahrain and to target American military personnel stationed on the tiny island ahead of a visit by the U.S. defence secretary.
The appeal came in a video that also urges militants to attack the Sunni-ruled island’s Shiite majority, amid a wide-scale government crackdown on dissent.
IS propaganda has waned as the extremists continue to lose territory in Iraq and Syria under the onslaught of a U.S.-led campaign. Bahrain is part of the anti-IS coalition.
In the IS video, images of Bahraini fighter jets are juxtaposed to footage of an airstrike hitting an IS-held area. It also shows clips of a Bahrain-based Gulf Air flight, the King Fahd Causeway linking the island to Saudi Arabia, and other sites in the capital, Manama.