Senior Saudi Military Officer Killed in Restive Qatif

A spokesman for the Saudi regime interior ministry said that the incident occurred in the old quarter of Awamiyah Village, known as al-Mosara, at 11:30 p.m. local time on Sunday while the officers were on patrol. The officer was killed was identified as Major Tariq Bin Abdul Lateef al-Allaqi.
 
The oil-rich eastern province of Qatif is mostly Shiite, a minority in the kingdom ruled based on the extremist and intolerant Wahhabi ideology.
 
The Saudi Press Agency has reported an increase in clashes between Shiite Muslims and security forces in Masoura in recent weeks after the Saudi government sent in workers to demolish a 400-year-old walled neighborhood there.
 
No individual or group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. On May 16, a Saudi soldier was also killed and five others were wounded when gunmen fired a rocket-propelled grenade at their patrol car in Awamiyah.
 
Saudi forces started their brutal attack on Awamiyah village on May 10, using helicopter gunships and heavy weapons. The Saudi regime says the aim of the raid is to allow ‘renovation’ of the historic al-Mosara neighborhood to make way for a planned a new project.
 
The "renovation" of the historic 400-year old Al Mosara neighborhood has been highly controversial. In April, the United Nations called on the Saudi regime to halt the project, warning that it threatened "the historical and cultural heritage of the town with irreparable harm".
 
Awamiyah, a town of 30,000 in the Shiite Muslim -majority Qatif district in the Eastern Saudi province, was the home of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a high ranking Shiite scholar who was unjustly hanged in January last year for demanding the legitimate rights of the region’s residents.