By : Michael Knights, The Washington Institute
On May 2, U.S.-designated Iran-backed Bahraini militant organization Saraya al-Ashtar claimed to have undertaken a drone attack on April 27, against an Israeli company Trucknet, which is based in Eilat, Israel. The group threatened to undertake more attacks as long as the Israeli incursion continued inside Gaza
(Figure 1).
The launch video that was posted on various social media accounts linked to Bahraini militias, including al-Abdal showed a number of interesting details:
- A Sammad-type (KAS-04) V-wing drone being launched at dusk, with a grey-white mottled exterior (Figure 2). This is a type of Iran-provided drone that is seen less and less often in Iraq and Syria, but which has been mostly connected to KH ( Kataeb Hezbollah) attacks.
- The Saraya al-Ashtar flag, planted by the launch site.
- A sticker applied to an electronics case and both wings and nose of the drone that shows four Saraya al-Ashtar members (Figure 3). (The launch team also wore quite snazzy t-shirts with the same four-man montage image – definitely the most accessorized terrorist launch cell seen to-date.) The four men on the poster are Ridha al-Rida Al Ghisra, Mahmoud Yousif, Mustafa Yousif and Ahmad al-Malali. They were involved in operation to break from Jau prison near Manama. The first three militants were shot dead by Bahraini security forces while trying to escape to Iran on a boat in February 2017. The last man was arrested and executed in July 2019.
Figure 2: Mottled camouflage on the Sammad/KAS-04 V-tail drone shown in the May 2 claim, reminiscent of Second World War “shark” skin techniques.Figure 2: Mottled camouflage on the Sammad/KAS-04 V-tail drone shown in the May 2 claim, reminiscent of Second World War “shark” skin techniques.
Probable Iraqi-executed attack, dedicated to the Bahraini group
The open terrain and leisurely launch sequence of the drone makes it all but impossible that this drone was launched from Bahrain, an environment where it is difficult for Iran and Saraya al-Ashtar to smuggle even persons and light weapons or explosives into the country. More likely Iraqi militias facilitated (and perhaps entirely undertook) the launch, dedicating the effort to Saraya al-Ashtar to help keep their dimming brand alive.
Figure 3: The four-man motif placed on an electronics case, on t-shirts and on the wings and nose of the drone.
Early in 2024, Kataib Hezbollah (KH) made another effort to revive the Saraya al-Ashtar brand with comments about the future of resistance in Bahrain. On January 9, al-Mayadeen TV which is linked to Lebanon’s Hezbollah interviewed the military spokesman of KH, Jafar al-Husseini, who was sanctioned by the U.S. government on November 17, 2023 for “coordinating with KH fighters planning attacks against U.S. military commanders in Iraq.” He noted “we also have the resistance in Bahrain and Hejaz [Saudi Arabia]. Even though their presence is not clear now, it will be more visible in the coming years and the coming confrontations.” In this case, that visibility seems to be pretending that Bahraini groups are still able to undertake real world contributions to the axis of resistance.
KH and Saraya al-Ashtar have a long-running connection (see the long article by Michael Knights and Matt Levitt on this issue and for greater detail on the items below). In March and August 2015, senior Bahraini security officials went on-record stating that KH provided training on explosively formed penetrator (EFP) armor-piercing bombs at a camp in Iraq and “offered logistical and financial support” to Saraya al-Ashtar. In March 2017, Bahraini security agencies linked a deadly March 3, 2014 explosion in Manama that killed three policemen (including one UAE advisor) to a Saraya al-Ashtar cell trained and equipped by KH at Iraqi bases. Saraya al-Ashtar (Al-Ashtar Brigades, or AAB in U.S. terminology) and a number of its leaders were sanctioned as Specially Designated Global Terrorists by the United States on March 17, 2017. On March 12, 2024 – a possible precursor to the dedication of this attack to the Bahraini group – the U.S. added four new Saraya al-Ashtar members to its list of Specially Designated Nationals.
An attack on Gulf Arab-Mediterranean logistical concepts
A final interesting aspect of the April 27 claim is the target – Israeli trucking company Trucknet, which is linked to the India-Middle East Corridor (IMEC) concept, which would link Gulf Cooperation Council ports to Jordan and thence to the Mediterranean via Israel. This is a direct competitor to the Development Road project, which would instead send trade via Iran and Iraq through Turkey and Syria, towards Europe and the Mediterranean. Iraqi terrorist groups like KH and Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), plus the not-yet-designated Badr, appear highly invested in the Development Road, where they are poised to dominate the commercial fruits.
On April 1, 2024, Abu Ali al-Askari, security chief for KH, claimed that his group “has prepared to arm the Islamic Resistance in Jordan” and would first seek “to cut the road that reaches the Zionist Entity”. Unless checked, Iraq’s muqawama groups are likely to use strikes to damage the prospects of logistical schemes in which they have no stake – such as IMEC. Already, as shown by repeated drone and rocket strikes on commercial gas infrastructure in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq have proved they are capable of halting progress on key infrastructure if they wish to.
Washington Institute
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