A Bahraini court jailed on Sunday three citizens for 10 years each after accusing them of attempting to kill police officers in last February during anti-government peaceful protests in the village of Karzakan

A Bahraini court jailed on Sunday three citizens for 10 years each after accusing them of attempting to kill police officers in last February during anti-government peaceful protests in the village of Karzakan, lawyers said.

The trio, Jaafar Ali, Hussein Mansur and Mustafa Abdulkarim, had been charged of attempting to kill three policemen "with premeditation" on February 16, , southwest of Manama.

The public prosecution had also accused the men of "possessing homemade shotguns, as well as employing violence against police, and participating in an unauthorized protest."

They opened fire on police as security forces were dispersing a protest in the village, the prosecution said.

Bahrain, a Gulf kingdom ruled by the Al-Khalifa dynasty, was rocked by peaceful  demonstrations in February and March 2011.

Home to the US Fifth Fleet and strategically situated across the Gulf from Iran, Bahrain still sees sporadic demonstrations, mostly outside the capital Manama.

According to the International Federation for Human Rights, around 80 people have been killed in Bahrain by Al-Khalifa forces since the uprising first erupted in 2011.