Riyadh: Saudi authorities on Monday announced the names of 23 men wanted for involvement in trouble during the past few months in Shiite areas of the kingdom's Eastern Province.
The group is accused mainly of "possessing illegal firearms and opening fire on the public and police, in addition to using innocent people as shields", the interior ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.
They were suspected of taking part in "mobs, blocking traffic [and] damaging public and private property" during sporadic confrontations between police and Shiite protesters. Security forces shot and wounded three people last week when they raided three homes in the village of Al Awamiya, in Qatif, activists and witnesses said.
"Those outlaws are a minority who do not represent the honourable people of the region, who had enough of their acts, as some of them have a criminal record," the ministry said.
Protests shook the Eastern Province in March as Shiites took to the streets denouncing Saudi troops' intervention in neighbouring Bahrain, following anti-government protests in that country.
