Riyadh: An unidentified attacker killed a member of Saudi Arabia’s security forces on Sunday, police said in a statement on state media, near a village where unrest among the country’s Shiite minority has been focused.
The village, Awamiya, has been the focal point of unrest since mass protests in early 2011 calling for an end to discrimination against the minority sect and for reforms in the 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. 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 convicted of rioting or inciting riot, and by an attack by militants last month.
The government has accused Shiite activists involved in attacks on security officers or protests as working on behalf of a foreign power, widely understood to mean Iran. The activists and Tehran deny that.
