Police killed, 6 wounded in rocket attack in Saudi

Qatif has seen a string of assaults on security forces in recent weeks.

Riyadh, Jul 31: Saudi Arabia's interior ministry has said that a policeman was killed and six others wounded in a rocket attack in the Shiite-majority eastern district of Qatif.

The area has been rocked by unrest since 2011, when Shiite protests erupted to demand equality in the Sunni- dominated Gulf kingdom.

Sunday's incident saw a police patrol come under a "terrorist attack with a rocket" in al-Masoura neighborhood in Qatif, the ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

It said the six wounded officers were hospitalised and in a stable condition.

Qatif has seen a string of assaults on security forces in recent weeks. Police shot three men wanted for "terrorist" attacks earlier this month, the ministry said then.

Most of Saudi Arabia's Shiites live in the oil-rich east, where they have long complained of marginalisation. Authorities have blamed the violence on "terrorists" and drug traffickers.

PTI