Shia militant killed in gunfight with Saudi forces

A wanted person has been fatally wounded during an operation by Saudi security forces in eastern Saudi Arabia, the interior ministry said today, in the second incident of its kind since Friday.

Residents said that a 16-year-old youth died in the raid on Saturday morning targeting wanted people in Awamiya, a restive town in the Qatif district, where many of the country’s Shia minority live.

The interior ministry said security forces came under fire while pursuing wanted men who had been hiding in houses vacated by inhabitants to pave the way for a development project intended to revamp the area.

“Security men came under heavy gunfire at the Musawara neighbourhood from an unknown source, which required an appropriate response,” the statement, carried by state news agency SPA said.

“As a result, Walid Talal Ali Al-Arayedh, who is wanted by security authorities, was wounded and taken to a hospital where he later died.”

Reuters reported residents reached by telephone as claiming that Al-Arayedh was a bystander in the area when he was fatally shot and taken to a hospital by his family, where he died.

However, Saudi authorities insist that Al-Arayedh was an armed fugitive who opened fire on security forces and was shot in the ensuing battle.

Activists posted video and audio recordings of heavy automatic fire and images of vehicles riddled with bullets from the raid, which they said lasted for about three hours. The authenticity of the recordings could not immediately be verified.

On Friday, SPA reported that security forces killed Mustafa Ali Abdullah Al-Madad, who was wanted by security forces for “a number of terror crimes against the citizens and security personnel” in Qatif district.

Awamiya was the hometown of prominent Iran-backed Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr, whose execution in January last year prompted angry protests against the ruling Al Saud dynasty and led to Saudi Arabia cutting off relations with Iran after regime-backed Iranians set the Saudi Embassy in Tehran ablaze.

Qatif in the Eastern province has been the focal point of unrest among Saudi Arabia’s Shias since protests in early 2011 calling for an end to alleged discrimination against the minority sect and for reforms in the Sunni Muslim monarchy. Saudi Arabia denies any discrimination against the Shia.