Dubai: A wanted man has been killed in Saudi Arabia’s oil-producing Eastern province after an exchange of gunfire while police were searching his home, state news agency SPA reported on Thursday.
Saudi state news agency SPA said security forces came under heavy fire when they raided the home of Abdul Rahim Al Faraj and his brother, Majid, who was also wanted by security forces, in Awamiya on Wednesday evening.
“Security forces were later informed that a person who was fatally wounded by a gun shot had arrived at Mudar clinic and his identity check showed it was the wanted man Abdul Rahim Al Faraj,” SPA reported, quoting an interior ministry spokesman.
The agency said the two brothers had been wanted for firing on security forces in attacks that killed several people and for being involved in armed robberies, and that weapons had been found in the house.
Awamiya is also the hometown of prominent Shiite cleric, Shaikh Nimr Al Nimr, whose execution in January prompted angry protests in the area and led to Saudi Arabia cutting off relations with Iran.
In February, Saudi security forces killed Ali Mahmoud Ali Abdullah, a Bahraini national, who was wanted for taking part in “terrorist crimes”, according to the ministry.
Qatif in Eastern province has been the focal point of unrest among Saudi Arabia’s Shiites since protests in early 2011.
