Bahrain’s interior ministry said in a statement that the operation stemmed from ongoing investigations into espionage activities and alleged cooperation with foreign entities.“In accordance with previous investigations carried out by the prosecutor’s office in cases of espionage on behalf of foreign entities and sympathy for Iranian aggression, the security services dismantled an organization linked to the Revolutionary Guards,” the ministry said.

The statement added that 41 individuals had been detained but provided no further details regarding their identities, nationalities or the specific accusations against them.The arrests come during a period of intensified security measures across Gulf states after Iranian attacks targeting regional infrastructure and military facilities in response to U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and remains one of Washington’s closest security partners in the Gulf, making it strategically significant in the wider regional confrontation.Authorities in Manama have increasingly tightened restrictions on expressions of support for Tehran since the conflict escalated earlier this year.

Last month, Bahrain revoked the citizenship of 69 people accused of publicly supporting Iran.The alleged group was accused of links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the powerful branch of Iran’s armed forces that oversees the country’s missile programs and regional security operations.

Bahrain has long accused Iran of backing unrest and militant activity within the kingdom, allegations Tehran has repeatedly denied.The latest arrests are likely to deepen already strained relations between Gulf Arab states and Iran as diplomatic efforts continue to seek a broader regional de-escalation agreement.

State-run Anadolu Agency⁠ reported that prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 30 suspects linked to alleged corruption involving municipal subsidiaries and public tenders. Twenty-nine suspects were detained, while one individual was reported to be abroad.

According to a statement cited by prosecutors, the investigation concerns the alleged “activities of a criminal organization established under the leadership of Ekrem Imamoglu.”Authorities accuse the suspects of manipulating public procurement processes through companies affiliated with the Istanbul municipality.

Imamoglu, who has been imprisoned for more than a year, is currently standing trial alongside 413 co-defendants. Prosecutors allege he directed a large criminal network operating within the municipality. If convicted on all charges, he could face cumulative prison sentences totaling 2,430 years under Turkish law.

The Istanbul mayor and his political allies deny the accusations and argue the investigation is politically motivated, accusing Erdogan’s government of attempting to sideline one of the country’s most prominent opposition figures ahead of the 2028 presidential election.

Imamoglu emerged as a major national challenger to Erdogan after securing repeated election victories in Istanbul, Türkiye’s largest city and economic hub. Opposition parties have increasingly described the legal proceedings against him as part of broader pressure on dissenting political voices and municipal administrations controlled by the opposition.

The Turkish government has repeatedly denied accusations of political interference in the judiciary, maintaining that courts operate independently and investigations are conducted according to the law.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said at least nine of those executed were linked to protests that shook Iran in January 2026, while 10 others were put to death for alleged membership in opposition groups and two were executed on spying charges.

The agency said many of those detained had been subjected to enforced disappearances, torture and what it described as cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including forced confessions, some of which were later broadcast publicly, as well as mock executions.

“I am appalled that on top of the already severe impacts of the conflict the rights of the Iranian people continue to be stripped from them by the authorities, in harsh and brutal ways,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement.

“In times of war, threats to human rights increase exponentially. Yet even where national security is invoked, human rights can only be limited where strictly necessary and proportionate,” he said.Turk called on Iranian authorities to halt further executions, establish a moratorium on the death penalty, ensure due process and fair trial guarantees, and immediately release those arbitrarily detained.

OHCHR said many people, including minors, remain at risk of capital punishment because of Iran’s broad interpretation of national security offenses. It said judicial proceedings were often accelerated and some death sentences, including those of at least nine executed protesters, were reportedly based on coerced confessions.

The agency also raised concerns over the transfer of dozens of prisoners, including prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, to undisclosed locations.Iran remains one of the world’s leading users of capital punishment and executes more people annually than any country except China, according to rights groups including Amnesty International.

Turk also criticized prison conditions across Iran, describing them as dire, with overcrowding and severe shortages of food, water, hygiene supplies, medicine and access to medical care.In Chabahar prison on March 18, detainees protesting the prolonged suspension of food distribution were reportedly met with lethal force.

OHCHR said security forces killed at least five prisoners and injured 21 others after confronting demonstrators inside the prison.The agency further said internet access in Iran had been almost completely shut down for 61 consecutive days, describing it as one of the longest nationwide shutdowns ever recorded.

“This is denying people across the country access to vital information, silencing independent voices, and inflicting enormous social and economic harm,” Turk said.He said the restrictions were worsening an already fragile humanitarian and economic situation and urged authorities to restore access immediately.

The Interior Ministry said the arrests were carried out by the State Security Agency, which “apprehended 24 citizens, one of whom had his citizenship revoked,” and seized funds linked to illicit activities. It described the case as an organized effort to collect money under religious pretexts for transfer abroad.

Officials said the operation had “thwarted a plot targeting the undermining of the homeland’s security and the financing of terrorist entities and organizations,” without naming specific groups or countries involved.

The Kuwait Interior Ministry said the funds were gathered in coordination with external actors, indicating cross-border links in the alleged network.In a subsequent move, the Kuwait Foreign Ministry placed the suspects on the country’s domestic counterterrorism designation list, freezing their assets and imposing travel restrictions.

A security source confirmed that five former members of Kuwait’s parliament were among those detained, though their identities were not disclosed in the official statement.The arrests come amid increased security vigilance in the Gulf following escalating conflict in the region.

Authorities have stepped up actions against individuals suspected of supporting groups aligned with Hezbollah or other Iran-linked entities.

In March, Kuwait detained six people accused of ties to Hezbollah and of planning assassinations, according to officials.

Turkish authorities have increased stop-and-search checks around Istanbul, targeting Syrians without registration papers or for working informally.

Adnan is stuck at home again. “I’m not leaving the house today,” he says, speaking from his apartment in the Istanbul suburb of Esenyurt.

When he does venture out into the streets of Turkey’s financial capital, the 27-year-old refugee from Syria jumps at the sight of passing police cars. He avoids crowded places. Sometimes, like today, he prefers not to go out at all.

Originally from Yarmouk refugee camp in the south Damascus suburbs, Adnan arrived in Turkey last July after paying smugglers to get him across the border from northwest Idlib province.

Because of tightening restrictions on the registration of Syrian refugees in Turkey, Adnan still has not been able to get a temporary protection ID from Turkish authorities. This means he is undocumented, and now at risk of arrest as authorities step up arbitrary arrests of Syrians without papers.

Since the weekend, Turkish authorities have increased stop-and-search checks around Istanbul, targeting Syrians without registration papers or for working informally. The interior ministry announced planned raids to find undocumented migrants in Istanbul on July 13, with local security officials also calling for the arrest of Syrians allegedly involved in unspecified crimes.

Authorities have not released details about the raids or how many arrests were conducted in recent days, however the news has sparked fears in the city’s Syrian unregistered community, with many staying home and avoiding work. About half a million Syrians are registered legally in Istanbul and perhaps another half million undocumented refugees like Adnan.

One Syrian factory worker in Istanbul, speaking on condition of anonymity, said more than 50 of his Syrian colleagues had not shown up on Tuesday, out of a total workforce of 110.

The latest campaign comes amid growing public discontent with the country’s deteriorating economy and rising anti-Syrian xenophobia.

‘Don’t open the door’

Starting on Tuesday morning, WhatsApp groups used by local Syrian activists started spreading warnings about security checks happening in metro stations, buses and public squares. One video appeared to show a Turkish police checkpoint in Istanbul’s Aksaray district, stopping young Syrian men to examine their papers. In another, shared on Thursday, shows a busload of young Syrian men after being apprehended by authorities. “We don’t know where we’re going,” one man says.

Earlier this week, 32-year-old Malik told his wife to stop answering the door after hearing stories that the police were looking for Syrians without ID cards and temporary protection papers.

Malik is registered in a province outside of Istanbul. “And I couldn’t get papers for my wife and daughter,” he says, meaning all three could face arrest.

For Mohammed, a 29-year-old originally from Damascus, the fear of checkpoints reminds him of home. His fear of arrest in Damascus in 2013 was part of the reason he fled to Turkey.

Now, he says, he feels like he is living the same life in Istanbul.

“I have to stay in hiding,” he says, because he carries a temporary protection card from another province. “So I can’t continue my work.”

To work legally in the city, a Syrian worker must have a temporary protection card issued by the province of Istanbul, formal authorisation for a job, and social welfare payments. Tens of thousands of Syrians in the city do not meet these conditions.

But at the same time, informal labour is cheap. Factories often prefer illegally employing Syrians to Turks because they can pay them less and avoid contributing to their social insurance.

The arrest campaign is the latest sign of a hardening of both rhetoric and policy towards Syrians in Turkey.

In Istanbul, the leftist nationalist Republican People’s Party (CHP) ran against a candidate from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) party and won—twice. Unsatisfied with the first poll’s purportedly “tainted” result, AKP officials called for a rerun. The second vote produced a resounding victory for the CHP.

The CHP was repeatedly criticised for using anti-refugee rhetoric in its campaign, with Istanbul’s new mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu continuing the incitement in office, but xenophobia has become a cross-party issue. AKP-run municipalities have enforced new regulations cracking down on Arabic-language signage above shops and businesses across the country. And incidents of mob violence against Syrian-owned businesses have continued in post-election Istanbul. A coarsely worded hashtag, widely shared right after the election, also made the sentiment clear: “Syrians go home.”

Threat of expanded deportations

The latest raids are the result of an economy in decline twinned with growing resentment from local Turks about government policy towards Syrian refugees, according to Omar Kadkoy, a policy analyst at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey think tank.

“When the government does not present an integration policy based on checks and balance, we arrive at [the point] we’re at now,” he told The National, referring to “discontent from locals over the overall policy towards Syrians [and] economic competition that is fuelling social tension.”

He continued: “And then, the government is trying to gain control by implementing theses harsh measures to contain the social tension and to present itself to its constituency as in charge. But how is that being done? By basically threatening those who are undocumented or working informally to be deported.”

In recent years, Turkish authorities have rounded up Syrian refugees across the country and forcibly deported them – often after short spells in EU-funded detention centres used to hold non-nationals before they are removed from the country. The government claims well over 300,000 refugees voluntarily returned, although human rights groups question just how voluntary these returns were. According to Human Rights Watch, these returns likely constitute refoulement, the illegal forceful repatriation of refugees to unsafe countries of origin.

Syrian detainees are effectively given a choice between prison time or signing a so-called “voluntary return document,” after which they’re deported into opposition-held areas of Idlib or Aleppo.

While the practice is not new, growing tensions around Turkey’s Syrian community could leave more vulnerable to deportation.

Turkish authorities deported Ashraf, a 34-year-old Syrian refugee living in Istanbul, back in April.

He was walking through one of the city’s squares when he was picked up by police, transported to a detention facility and then deported across the Bab Al Salameh crossing into Aleppo province.

“How am I supposed to stay in Syria?” says Ashraf, who eventually smuggled his way back into Turkey. “Danger is everywhere.”

Back in Esenyurt, Adnan is running out of options. Returning to Syria is of the question, he says, but Turkey is feeling less hospitable by the day.

“In Idlib and northern Aleppo, life is impossible – there are weapons everywhere and you can’t work,” he says. “[And] Turkey wasn’t my choice, but I found myself forced to come here.”

“So I basically have no choice.”

And so he sits at home, and waits.

Article first published on National.AE.