Bahrain Mirror (AFP): A Bahraini court on Sunday jailed 12 Shiites for life and stripped them of their citizenship after convicting them of bomb attacks against police in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, a judicial source said.

The defendants were behind six bombings that targeted police patrols between 2013 and 2014, the source said, citing the verdict.

The prosecution had charged the group with "attempting to kill policemen... bombings, (and) possessing explosives to terrorise people and endanger lives".

Their acts were "serving a terrorist objective," it said.

An Indian and a Bangladeshi were also jailed for one year, and ordered deported after serving their sentences, for forging the registrations of mobile phones used in detonating the bombs.

The two were not aware that the phones would be used for bombings, prosecutors said.

Bahrain in 2013 passed a law allowing for those convicted of "terrorist" crimes to be stripped of their nationality.

The country's main Shiite opposition group, Al-Wefaq, said recently that at least 187 people have lost their citizenship under the law.

The Gulf country, home to the US Fifth Fleet, has witnessed unrest since the repression of a protest movement launched in 2011 by members of the Shiite majority demanding political reforms.