Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

MOVEMENT FOR THE LIBERATION OF BAHRAIN • 445court, with no harm to life or limb in either incident; the 23 December2006 bombing of the residence of River State Governor Peter Odili,with no harm to life or limb; and the 3 May 2007 armed attack on theexploration vessel Mystras of the Italian oil company ENI, in whicheight Italian hostages were seized and later released; the 8 May 2007bombings of three oil pipelines in Bayelsa state; and the 13 November2007 MEND attack on Cameroonian soldiers on the Bakassi peninsula,whose sovereignty is disputed by Nigeria and Cameroon. The numbersof MEND fighters and the identities of their leaders are not known.MEND is the most active and most dangerous of the various insurgentgroups in Nigeria. While there is some speculation that MENDis hiring mercenaries from criminal gangs and tribal warrior societiesto carry out their attacks, so far there is no evidence of outside statesponsorship or of coordination with other anti-U.S. terrorist groupsoutside Nigeria.MOVEMENT FOR ISLAMIC CHANGE. See RIYADH BOMB-INGS.MOVEMENT FOR THE LIBERATION OF BAHRAIN (MLB).The MLB was an Islamic fundamentalist group of Bahraini Shi’iteMuslims under Iranian state sponsorship aimed at toppling the alKhalifa dynasty in the emirate of Bahrain and creating an IranianstyleIslamic republic there. Following the abortive coup attempt of13 December 1981 by the Iranian-sponsored Islamic Front for theLiberation of Bahrain (IFLB), that group had very limited success intrying to recruit more Bahrainis. While the IFLB turned to contactinginternational human rights organizations and trying to accuse the Bahrainigovernment of mistreatment of the arrested coup plotters, it hadlost credibility as being an independent Islamic liberation movement.The Movement for the Liberation of Bahrain, formed in 1983, essentiallyis a repackaging of the IFLB in a form more attractive forthe recruitment of young Bahraini Shi’ites alienated from the currentSunni government ruling the largely Shi’ite island-state. In February1984 the Bahraini coast guard intercepted a large shipment of Iranianarms before it was delivered. In late December 1987 an oil refineryengineer was arrested who had been recruited by Iran and trained tocarry out a sabotage operation at Bahrain’s one oil refinery.The leader of the MLB, Dr. Said Shehabi, directed the group fromLondon during the 1990s and moderated the demands of the group,