Story highlights Executions spark protests in Bahrain

They are the first executions in Bahrain in six years

(CNN) Bahrain has executed three men convicted of killing three police officers in a 2014 bombing. The move sparked protests in the island nation and could further raise tensions between the country's Shiite majority and its Sunni rulers.

The men were killed by a firing squad Sunday morning in the presence of a judge, physician and a Muslim cleric, State news agency BNA reported, quoting the head of the Terrorist Crimes Prosecution, Ahmed El-Hamady.

The executions came less than a week after Bahrain's highest court upheld their death sentences over a bomb attack in March 2014, the agency said. The executed men belonged to a militant Shia group, the state news agency said. Seven other defendants received life terms.

"Sami Mushaima, Ali Al-Singace and Abbas Al-Samea were convicted of manufacturing and planting improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that were detonated remotely after luring first responders into the fatal ambush," said a statement released Sunday by Bahrain's London Embassy

"Those convicted were members of the listed terrorist group Saraya al-Ashtar, whose members have been convicted of attempting to smuggle weapons and explosives into the kingdom to carry out similar violent attacks."

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