Bahrain issued two public warnings about a potential threat on Sunday, urging citizens and residents to remain calm and move to the nearest safe location. The messages also asked people to follow updates through official channels.
The first warning was posted at about 4.32am local time on 15 November. It was subsequently reported to have been lifted. A second warning followed at about 6.50am, repeating the advice to seek safety. The times are the times of the public messages, not independently established times at which any underlying incident began.
Neither warning identified the nature of the potential threat. The information available with the messages did not establish whether they concerned the same incident. As of 8.01am local time, there was no clear confirmation available that the second warning had been lifted.
What the warnings did and did not say
The instructions were addressed to citizens and residents, but the messages did not identify a particular target or describe an impact. A warning that people should seek a safe place should not be treated as confirmation that a strike has occurred or that anyone has been hurt.
Warning sirens were reported in Bahrain early on Sunday. An account also emerged of air defences intercepting Iranian drones over the kingdom. The available accounts do not establish that the reported interception was the reason for either of the two warnings.
Separately, Iranian military officials claimed that six drones were directed at a US air-defence radar at Al-Riffa helicopter base in Bahrain and that they struck their target. The claimed outcome has not been independently verified. The public warnings did not name the base or identify that claim as their cause.
An earlier disputed account
The Sunday alerts followed a separate dispute two days earlier. On 13 November, Iranian forces claimed to have destroyed a US early-warning radar in Bahrain. US military officials rejected that account, saying two Iranian attack drones heading towards Bahrain had been shot down by American forces and that there were no injuries or damage.
The American denial concerned the earlier claim. It should not be taken as a response to, or proof about, the separate allegation made on Sunday. Nor do the accounts establish the circumstances of any individual warning issued to Bahrain’s residents.
Iran said the earlier operation was retaliation for an attack on a telecommunications tower in its southern Hormozgan province. That was Iran’s stated explanation for the 13 November claim; it does not establish the cause of the warnings two days later.
Following an alert
Bahrain’s MyGov app has a siren and emergency-alert feature. Users can enable general notifications in the app’s settings to receive official updates. The feature forms part of a wider system of public alerts and does not replace instructions issued through other official channels.
An earlier security notice for Americans in the region, issued on 7 November, warned of possible flight cancellations, airspace closures and travel disruption. It advised travellers to check flight information with their airline and to follow local instructions. That notice preceded Sunday’s warnings and was not confirmation that Bahrain’s airspace had closed or that a particular flight had been cancelled.
The two warnings show that the public was asked to take precautions on more than one occasion. What prompted each message, and the status of the second warning after its issue, require further confirmation. Any subsequent official update would be important for people deciding how to respond.
