Three Bahrainis have each been jailed for 15 years and stripped of their citizenship for "militant acts", a senior judicial official in the Gulf kingdom said on Tuesday.

"In a terrorism-related case, the criminal court sentenced three people to 15 years each in prison, and to have their nationality revoked," Ahmed al-Hammadi, the prosecutor in charge of "militant" cases, said in a statement.

He said the three were prosecuted for "possession of explosives" and making home-made devices that were planted to attack security forces, before being discovered and defused.

Opposition sources in the Shiite-majority but Sunni-ruled kingdom said the three were all Shiites involved in protests.

Since 2001, Bahrain has been rocked by sporadic Shiite-led demonstrations demanding a constitutional monarchy.

Washington ally Bahrain, across the Gulf from Shiite Iran, is the home base of the US Fifth Fleet.
Source: AFP