Saudi policeman shot dead

A Saudi policeman was shot dead today in the kingdom's Shiite-populated east, the interior ministry said.

The officer was hit by gunfire from "an unknown source" as he got out of his car in a neighbourhood northwest of the city of Dammam, said a ministry spokesman quoted by the official SPA news agency.

He was part of a unit assigned with guarding public installations.

Authorities have launched an investigation into the attack, the latest in a series against officers in Shiite areas of the oil-rich east of the kingdom, the spokesman added.

It is the third attack of its kind in Dammam during the past two months.
 

The Shiite minority in Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia has long complained of discrimination.

There has been sporadic unrest since the suppression of a Shiite-led uprising in neighbouring Bahrain sparked a wave of protests in 2011.

Saudi security forces have also come under attack by Sunni extremists linked to Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group.