On Thursday, anti-regime protests were held in several villages, including Al Daih and Damistan-- west of the capital Manama.

The demonstrators carried their national flag and chanted anti-regime slogans during the protests.

On Thursday, a court in Bahrain sentenced 18 anti-regime activists to between five and seven years in prison after convicting them of allegedly attacking a police station in a Shia village near Manama last November.

The verdict brought to 122 the number of pro-democracy demonstrators sentenced to lengthy jail terms in Bahrain.

On Monday, nine anti-regime activists were also to life in prison after being convicted of being allegedly involved in an attack in November 2011 in Manama.

Four of the defendants, who were present at the court, had previously said that they were subjected to torture and mistreatment in solitary confinement.

Five other defendants, tried in absentia, were handed additional 10-year jail terms for failing to hand themselves in.

Since mid-February 2011, thousands of pro-democracy protesters have staged numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.

On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on the peaceful protesters.

According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested.

Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have "evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police" in the crackdown on anti-government protesters.

BA/BA