Bahrain Mirror - AFP: A Bahraini court Thursday sentenced 24 people for belonging to an ISIS cell, stripping 13 of them of their citizenship, the prosecution said.

One member was jailed for life after being convicted of forming a branch of the Sunni extremist group and recruiting others, while the rest were each sentenced to 15 years in jail.

Only eight defendants are held by authorities while 16 others remain at large.

The cell ringleader was accused of recruiting two others into ISIS, and helping one of them travel to Syria to receive military training from the extremists, public prosecutor Ahmed al-Hammadi said.

The pair were also tasked with recruiting others who joined ISIS abroad.

Members were judged to have fought for ISIS, while the cell used social media to incite members of the military and security forces to "join their terrorist group," the prospector said.

The group also "plotted suicide attacks by members in Bahrain against places of worship, like the attacks by the terrorist group in neighboring countries," Hammadi said in an apparent reference to attacks on Shiite mosques in Saudi Arabia last year.

Sunni-ruled Bahrain has a majority Shiite population which has long complained of marginalization.

The Gulf kingdom is part of the U.S.-led coalition that is conducting airstrikes against ISIS in Syria.