DUBAI: Saudi
authorities blocked roads in a flashpoint Shia town Saturday, residents said, a day
after security officials reported that gunmen killed a two-year-old boy and a Pakistani man.
The gunfire targeted a redevelopment site in a neighbourhood of the Shia town of Awamiya, the Interior Ministry said late Friday.
Workers on the project in the old Almosara district “came unde
r fire and their vehicles were targeted by explosives” from within the neighbourhood, the ministry said in a statement.
It did not specify when the incident took place but said criminals engaged in the drug and arms trade tried “to jeopardise the project and protect their terrorist activities that they launch from the abandoned houses in the neighbourhood”.
As p
olice responded t
o the shooting, suspects “opened random and heavy gunfire at passers-by and security men”, killing a two-year-old Saudi boy and a Pakistani resident.
