RIYADH: Saudi security forces arrested nine Shias after a gunbattle in the oil-rich east, one of them wanted over protests among the minority community, a Saudi-owned newspaper reported yesterday.
The nine were overpowered without casualty on Monday after the firefight in Awamiya, a protest flashpoint in the Sunni-ruled kingdom’s Eastern Province, interior ministry spokesman Mansur Al Turki told pan-Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat.
Abbas Ali Mohammed Al Mazraa was on a list of 23 Saudis wanted in connection with the protests among the province’s two million Shias that broke out in Match 2011, the paper said.
He barricaded himself in a house with the other eight Shiites, who were wanted on suspicion of drug trafficking, the ministry spokesman said.AFP
