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Seabees and civilian workers build a fabric structure that will provide shade and cover on Naval Support Activity Bahrain. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: PO1 Peter Lewis\/Navy<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Late Thursday, the U.S. Embassy in Manama issued a security message noting that “extremist groups have issued broad calls for action by their supporters against the government of Bahrain and (the) U.S. military.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a statement to The Associated Press on Thursday, Bahrain’s government said it “remains vigilant against terrorist activities and extremism.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Authorities continue to take all necessary steps to preserve security and stability within the kingdom,” it read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The video appeared timed for high-level meetings on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Gulf Cooperation Council conference attended by British Prime Minister Theresa May ended on Wednesday. Weeks earlier, Britain’s Prince Charles and wife Camilla visited the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This coming weekend, Bahrain will host the Manama Dialogue, where U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter is scheduled to give the opening address. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is also due to attend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The video listed 14 purported fighters from the island who IS says died as suicide bombers or fighters in Iraq and Syria. One of their names is similar to a man the government identified in January 2015 as having his citizenship stripped for belonging to the militant group. Bahrain prosecuted a group of people last year it accused of forming a local ISIS cell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The video, like others from the extremists, seeks to cleave Sunnis from Shiites \u2014 something that’s particularly worrying in Bahrain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s been five years since Bahrain’s 2011 Arab Spring protests, which saw Shiites and others demand more political freedoms from the ruling Al Khalifa family. The government put down the demonstrations with help from Saudi and Emirati troops, and later pledged to carry out reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the time since, sectarianism has grown on the island and the Sunni-dominated government is in the midst of a crackdown on unrest at a level unseen since 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Authorities have suspended the country’s largest Shiite opposition group, Al-Wefaq, and doubled a prison sentence for its secretary-general. Human rights activists, Shiite leaders and others have been imprisoned, lost their citizenship or been forced into exile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bahrain’s government meanwhile has insisted that no one “will, or can be, prosecuted for his or her political views.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The government is fully committed to community cohesion and upholding the principles of reconciliation and tolerance, and will not allow the disruption of that cohesion and peace to go unchecked,” the government’s statement said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Islamic State group is calling for its followers to launch attacks in Bahrain, including those targeting American military personnel stationed on the tiny island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":74990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":86,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"4":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"5":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"6":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"7":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"}}},"categories":[10,15,86],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1172],"class_list":["post-67562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KZQJRVSFP5HLLH3INKHDRBPOEY","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2016\/12\/08\/an-isis-video-tells-its-followers-to-attack-shiites-and-americans-in-bahrain\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n