Terror threat puts U.S. forces in Bahrain on heightened alert

From Chris Plante
CNN National Security Producer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. forces in Bahrain are on a higher state of alert after a weekend threat against potential American targets there, U.S. officials told CNN.

The roughly 1,400 U.S. military personnel in Bahrain were ordered to move to the Pentagon's second-highest state of alert after "a specific threat" last weekend, the officials said. That alert level indicates that "some form of terrorist action is imminent."

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Bahrain is headquarters for the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, which keeps more than a dozen warships on patrol in the Persian Gulf. The order, issued over the weekend, moved U.S. forces in Bahrain to Threat Condition Charlie from Threat Condition Bravo.

Officials at the Pentagon say the heightened alert status was ordered last weekend and is not related in any way to Tuesday's conviction in a New York court of four terrorists believed by the United States to be connected to terror suspect Osama bin Laden. The four were convicted of conspiracy in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in which 224 people died.

U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region were ordered to Threat Condition Delta, the highest alert, after the October terrorist bombing of the destroyer USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden. The attack killed 17 U.S. sailors.

U.S. personnel in Yemen and other forces in the region are still at Threat Condition Charlie because of ongoing threats there.