3 killed in gun attacks on Saudi police posts

Riyadh: Gunmen opened fire on two Saudi police posts in the northwest of the kingdom killing two civilians and a policeman, the official news agency SPA reported on Friday.

It said two masked assailants shot dead two Saudis in Al Shamli, in the Hail region, on Thursday and a gunman killed a policeman at the traffic police station in a second attack in the town half an hour later.

The news agency gave no motives for the attacks but said an investigation has been opened.

Security forces have been on the alert in the face of attacks by Daesh, which controls swathes of Syria and Iraq.

Daesh has carried out terrorist attacks in the kingdom this year. In August, a suicide attack on a mosque used by security forces killed 15 people and, in May, two bombings of Shiite mosques killed 25. Several shootings of policemen in Riyadh and a car bomb outside a prison in the capital in July had also been claimed by Daesh