RIYADH: A teenage suspect has died from wounds after Saudi police “responded†under fire in a flashpoint Shia community, the interior ministry said on Sunday.
The officers came under heavy fire on Saturday morning while looking for suspects hiding among abandoned homes slated for redevelopment in the Almosara area of Awamiya, on the Gulf coast, the ministry said.
Police “responded as necessary,†wounding the suspect Waleed Talal Ali, aged about 18, who died in hospital, it said.
Awamiya, a town of 30,000 in the Shia-majority Qatif district, was the home of Nimr al-Nimr, a cleric put to death in January last year for “terrorism.†Nimr was a driving force behind protests by Shia residents that began in 2011 and developed into a call for equality in the kingdom. Awamiya has seen repeated security incidents in recent years.
Ali was among a group of nine wanted suspects, the interior ministry said, adding that the derelict homes in Almosara had been used for planning “terrorist activitiesâ€.