A Bahraini court on Thursday sentenced six people to life in prison for inciting riots to lure police towards a bomb, a judicial source said.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the six, all Shia Muslims, were found guilty of inciting a mass riot on November 25, 2014.

The riot was aimed at attracting security forces to the eastern village of Diraz, where a homemade bomb went off near a patrol car, wounding two officers, the source said.

Authorities in Sunni-ruled Bahrain, a tiny Shia-majority kingdom strategically located between Saudi Arabia and its archfoe Iran, have jailed dozens of activists and disbanded both religious and secular opposition groups since protests broke out in 2011.

The Bahraini government has accused Shiia Iran of backing the protests and attempting to overthrow the government. Tehran denies involvement.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.