According to a state-run news agency, Bahraini authorities arrested several people they described as a “terrorist cell” for plotting attacks on security and civil entities.

“Within the framework of homeland security efforts and in a proactive security operation in collaboration with the National Intelligence Service, the Investigation and Criminal Evidence Department announced the arrest of terrorist elements who began planning and preparing for terrorist operations targeting security and civil peace, as well as the seizure of weapons and explosives sourced from Iran with those elements associated with terrorist group,” read a report by the Bahrain News Agency.

Last November, Bahrain’s High Criminal Court sentenced 51 defendants to prison terms ranging from five years to life on charges of forming and joining a terrorist organization that took orders from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

The United States has also designated an Iran-backed extremist group based in Bahrain as a terrorist organization, citing the threat it poses to US national security and foreign policy.

According to a US State Department statement, the Saraya al-Mukhtar group is now a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.”