Saudi arrest over murder of policemen in Shiite region

Saudi authorities have arrested a man over a number of attacks on police in the kingdom's Shiite-populated east, including one that killed two of them, the interior ministry announced Friday.

Mufeed bin Ahmed Hasan Omran was arrested in the Qatif district for his involvement in "terrorist attacks", said a statement on state news agency SPA, without saying when or providing details on him.

A machinegun, handgun, hashish and amphetamine pills were found at the scene.

Omran was allegedly involved in the November 18 killing of two policemen in Qatif.

He is also thought to have been involved in another shooting that wounded two Indian passers-by and a policeman when officers came under fire from a farming area in Qatif earlier the same month.

And he was allegedly involved in attacking a citizen in the same region. The statement did not clarify the victim was killed or give reasons for the attack.

Qatif has been the scene of periodic clashes involving security forces after demonstrations broke out almost five years ago alongside a Shiite-led protest movement in neighbouring Bahrain.

But clashes with police are also sometimes linked to criminal activity including the drug trade, residents say.

Most of Saudi Arabia's Shiites live in the oil-rich east, where many say they are marginalised.
Source: AFP