Nine held in Qatif as police raid hide-out

By ARAB NEWS - RIYADH: Police have arrested nine suspects involved in recent shoot-outs with security patrols in the Qatif governorate in the Eastern Province.

“Police raided a hide-out in Qatif and arrested nine suspects. All of them are Saudis. The men will be subjected to normal legal procedures,” a spokesman of the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

Three security men were injured and many patrol vehicles damaged in the shootings by unidentified men on Saturday, Jan. 14 and Wednesday, Jan. 18, the spokesman added in the statement quoted by the Saudi Press Agency.

It was reported earlier that a man was injured during an exchange of fire between security forces and a group of assailants in the Awamiya town in Qatif.

The man died in a hospital later.

Since October there have been attempts to stoke trouble and rioting in Awamiya, which was attributed by the Interior Ministry to some people serving a foreign agenda.

The ministry issued a list of 23 Saudis wanted in connection with the riots on Jan. 3.

The government has pledged to use “an iron fist” after 14 people, including 11 policemen, had been wounded in an attack on a police station in Awamiya in October.