Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain

The Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain was an Iran-based Islamist paramilitary organization that attempted to instigate theocratic rule in Bahrain in the 1980s and 1990s.

Activities
It came to prominence as the front organisation for an attempted coup in Bahrain in 1981 that sought to install an Iraqi Ayatollah based in Iran, Ayatollah Hadi Al-Modaressi, as head of a theocratic revolution. In the 1990s the Front became more noted for bomb attacks targeting civilians such as the 1996 bomb attack on a Manama hotel.

Iranian intelligence front
The specific aim of the Front was “an uprising of all Muslims under Imam Khomeini” and the Front was trained and financed by Iran. Hadi Al-Modaressi served as Khomeini’s “personal representative” in Bahrain and his brother, Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi Al-Modaressi, was known as “Khomeini’s chief operative for exporting the Iranian revolution abroad” Cadres of the Front served with Iranian forces during the Iran-Iraq War and the Front’s military commander was killed while fighting for Iran.

According to a study by Shmuel Bar, Senior Research Fellow at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy: "Over the years since the Revolution Iran has founded a number of virtual organizations. These organizations such as the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain, Hizballah Hijaz, The Islamic Front for the Liberation of Saudi Arabia, et alia do not exist as independent political or military entities and can be counted as merely “virtual” branches of the Iranian MOIS [Ministry of Intelligence and National Security] or IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]/Qods Force."

One of the Front’s commanders, Iranian Ayatollah Sadeq Al-Rouhani, called for Bahrain to be annexed by Iran.