Bahrain’s Shiite opposition was overwhelmingly nonviolent when unrest erupted in the archipelago sheikhdom six years ago. Amid the recent narrowing of space in Bahrain’s political arena, however, a growing number of marginalized Shiites have radicalized and turned toward militancy. Last year, a wave of Shiite-orchestrated attacks targeted Bahrain’s security apparatus. As of March, there had already been almost as many attacks this year as there were in all of 2016. This development is unsettling given that heightened Shiite militancy severely dims the prospects for peaceful resolution of Bahrain’s ongoing political crisis.

Since 2012, militant Shiites have made their presence felt through violent outbursts, which mainly targeted police officers. In addition, these militants have shown their strength by planting grenades at a mall, detonating an explosive device at the National Bank of Bahrain in Sanad and attacking a power station. These armed Shiite opposition groups include the so-called February 14 Movement, Saraya al-Ashtar (Ashtar Brigade), Saraya al-Muqawama al-Shabiya (Resistance Brigade, or SMS), Saraya al-Mukhtar (Bahraini Islamic Resistance), Quroob al-Basta and Saraya al-Karar. In March 2014, Saraya al-Ashtar and SMS claimed responsibility for the “single worst incident of terrorism on Bahraini soil,” which killed two Bahraini police officers and an Emirati officer in the predominantly Shiite village of Daih. This attack prompted Bahrain’s government to designate those two groups plus the February 14 Movement as terrorist organizations.

Bahrain’s Shiite militant factions are not monolithic. These groups have different narratives, doctrines and political objectives. Some claim to fight in the name of religion, while others do not. SMS fights to “purge” Bahrain of the “Saudi and Khalifa occupiers.” Some of the groups have glorified the March 2014 killing of an Emirati officer (significant within the context of the United Arab Emirates’ support for the Al Khalifas in 2011), and called for an end to the US military’s presence in Bahrain. Other groups have called for violence only against Bahraini authorities, not American or other Gulf Cooperation Countries members’ interests in the sheikhdom.

Saraya al-Mukhtar promotes an agenda beyond Bahrain’s borders, linking the plight of Bahraini Shiites with that of their co-religionists in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province on the other side of the 16-mile King Fahd Causeway. Saraya al-Mukhtar sees Saudi and Bahraini Shiites in Eastern Province and the archipelago kingdom as one people with a common enemy. Last year, it called the execution of Shiite Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr “one of the greatest crimes of history.” Previously, the militant group had reacted with violence in response to the Saudi cleric’s detention.