Reuters: Patriot missile malfunction may have triggered Bahrain explosion

A malfunction in the US Patriot missile defence system may have caused the March 9 explosion in Bahrain that injured 32 people, according to experts.

A Bahraini official responding to Reuters said the missile successfully intercepted its target in the air. 

The outlet noted that neither the US nor Bahrain provided evidence linking an Iranian drone to the explosion, and the agency could not confirm whether any drone was in the sky over Sitra at the time of the incident.

Experts from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, concluded that the missile may have been fired from a US-operated Patriot battery located about 7 kilometers southwest of the explosion site. 

They suggested the interceptor was intended to strike a target at low altitude but detonated mid-flight.

By Jeyhun Aghazada