Pipeline explosion in Bahrain

Government officials blame Iran for attack

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An explosion ripped through a pipeline belonging to Bahrain’s staterun oil company and sent flames shooting up into the night sky, with government officials on Saturday blaming the blast on an attack by militants guided by Iran.

No one was injured in the explosion late Friday night near the Shiite village of Buri and no militant group immediately claimed responsibility. However, it potentially opens a new front in the low-level insurgency plaguing Bahrain since its 2011 Arab Spring protests.

The explosion damaged cars and nearby buildings, and firefighters evacuated those close to the flames in Buri, near the capital, Manama. Authorities later extinguished the blaze on the pipeline belonging to the state-run Bahrain Petroleum Co.

Bahrain’s interior minister, Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, said in a statement that the blast was “the latest example of a terrorist act performed by terrorists in direct contact with, and under instruction from, Iran.” Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa later tweeted that the explosion had targeted a pipeline running between the island nation and neighboring Saudi Arabia, which provides financial and security support to the kingdom.

Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, faces occasional attacks from local Shiite militant groups as the kingdom ruled by the Sunni Al Khalifa family continues a crackdown on all dissent, imprisoning or forcing politicians and activists into exile. Independent news gathering there has grown more difficult, with the government refusing to accredit two AP reporters and others .

However, the island’s oil infrastructure had not been targeted, even immediately after Emirati and Saudi forces helped Bahrain put down its 2011 Arab Spring protests.