RIYADH, April 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two suspects armed with explosives were killed and two others arrested after they attacked a security checkpoint in a Shiite stronghold in eastern Saudi Arabia, local media reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The attack occurred in Abu Hadriyah, a highway linking the kingdom\u2019s oil-rich Eastern Province to Bahrain and Kuwait, as the assailants tried to flee the country, Al-Arabiya television and other local media said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three of the four men were wanted \u201cterrorists\u201d from the Shiite-majority Qatif region, the reports added without specifying when the attack occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunni-ruled Bahrain condemned the attack, with its foreign ministry expressing solidarity with Saudi Arabia in \u201ccombating all forms of\u2026 terrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saudi Arabia\u2019s Eastern Province has seen bouts of unrest since 2011 when protesters emboldened by the Arab Spring took to the streets demanding an end to what they say is discrimination by the Sunni-dominated government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the leaders of the protest movement, Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, was executed in 2016 on a terrorism indictment, exacerbating sectarian tension both across the Gulf and with Saudi Arabia\u2019s main regional rival, Shiite Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Shiite community is estimated to make up between 10 and 15 percent of the kingdom\u2019s population of 32 million, but the government has released no official statistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government denies discrimination against Shiites. — NNN-AGENCIES
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RIYADH, April 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two suspects armed with explosives were killed and two others arrested after they attacked a security checkpoint in a Shiite stronghold in eastern Saudi Arabia, local media reported. The attack occurred in Abu Hadriyah, a highway linking the kingdom\u2019s oil-rich Eastern Province to Bahrain and Kuwait, as the assailants tried […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18856"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}