A residential explosion in Bahrain that Washington and Manama blamed on an Iranian drone was most likely caused by a US-operated Patriot interceptor missile, according to an independent analysis that the Bahraini government has now been forced to partially acknowledge.
Academic researchers at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey concluded with 'moderate-to-high confidence' that the pre-dawn blast on 9 March 2026 in the Mahazza neighbourhood of Sitra island, which injured 32 people, including children, originated from a Patriot air defence battery located approximately 6.4 kilometres southwest of the site.
