ABU DHABI: Bahrain has accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guard of setting up a militant cell to assassinate public figures in the Gulf kingdom and attack its airport and government buildings.

Authorities said Sunday they had arrested eight Bahrainis in the group, with links to Iran, Iraq and Lebanon.

The kingdom, base for the U.S. navy’s 5th Fleet, has been in political turmoil since protests erupted there in 2011, led by majority Shiites demanding an end to the Sunni monarchy’s political domination and full powers for parliament.

Bahrain has accused Shiite Iran of fueling the unrest, an accusation Tehran has consistentlydenied.

In a statement published by the official Bahrain News Agency late Tuesday, Bahrain’s head of public security said the cell was part of a group called the “Imam Army” which included Bahrainis at home and abroad and members of other nationalities.

“Investigation has also revealed that a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard code-named ‘Abu Naser’ masterminded the whole terror operation,” the agency quoted public security chief Major-Gen. Tariq Hasan al-Hasan as saying.

Abu Nasser supplied the group with $80,000, Hasan said, and instructed it to gather information, recruit and obtain weapons storage in Bahrain.

The cell’s planned targets included the Interior Ministry and Bahrain International Airport, he said. The group attended training camps run by the Revolutionary Guard inside Iran, as well as some operated by Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah in Baghdad and the Iraqi city of Kerbala, Hassan added.

Five of the detainees were arrested in Bahrain and three in Oman, Hasan said, adding another four Bahrainis were being sought by the authorities.

He said authorities had collected evidence in the form of papers and electronic documents, flashcards, phones, computers, cash and images of bank transactions.

On Monday Ramin Mehmanparast, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, dismissed Sunday’s news of the arrests.

“Unfortunately Bahraini officials are following a mistaken path,” Iran’s ISNA news agency quoted Mehmanparast as saying.

He said Bahraini officials were “making accusations against various countries including Iran, and they imagine that in this way they can solve the problem they are encountering.”

News of the arrests emerged after an upsurge in unrest on the island last week. A protester and a policeman were killed in clashes on Feb. 14 as anti-government protesters marked the second anniversary of the uprising.

The violence has clouded the atmosphere around talks that began on Feb. 10 between the mostly Shiite opposition and the Sunni-dominated government to find a way out of the impasse over Shiite demands for more democracy.