A police officer stands guard near the hotel where the 10th International Institute for the strategic Studies taking place in Manama.

Bahrain has charged 24 people with forming a cell of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group, plotting suicide attacks and recruiting fighters for the extremist organization.

The move came after investigations into the formation of a “branch for a terrorist group… the so-called Daesh,” said a prosecution statement, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Among the accused are 16 people who are still at large.

Their charges include “forming a branch for a terrorist group… joining it, possessing weapons and explosives for terrorist aims, in addition to promoting the overthrow of the regime,” said public prosecutor Ahmed al-Hammadi.

One of the defendants is accused of recruiting two others into ISIS, and helping one of them to travel to Syria where he received military training by extremists, the prosecutor said.

The pair were also tasked with recruiting others who joined ISIS abroad.

The group also “plotted suicide attacks by members in Bahrain against worship places, like the attacks by the terrorist group in neighboring countries,” Hammadi said in an apparent reference to attacks on Shiite mosques in Saudi Arabia.

A court hearing has been set for December 22.

The Gulf kingdom is part of the U.S.-led coalition that is conducting air strikes against ISIS in Syria.

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