RIYADH: An unidentified attacker killed a member of Saudi Arabia’s security forces yesterday, police said in a statement on state media, near a village where unrest among the country’s Shia Muslim minority has been focused.
The village, Awamiya, has been the focal point of unrest among Saudi Shias since mass protests in early 2011 calling for an end to discrimination against the minority sect and for democratic reforms in the absolute Sunni monarchy.
More than 20 people have been killed in the unrest since then, most of them local people shot in incidents that police have described as exchanges of fire. Shia rights activists say some of those killed were shot dead while peacefully protesting, which the government denies.
The area has been tense since death sentences were handed down this year to five Shias convicted of rioting or inciting riot, and by an attack by Sunni militants last month.
REUTERS
