Saudi security officer shot dead in attack claimed by Daesh

DUBAI — Assailants shot dead a senior Saudi security officer west of the capital Riyadh on Tuesday, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by state media, and the attack was claimed by the Daesh terror group.

The kingdom, the world's top oil exporter, has been hit by a spate of deadly shootings and bombings targeting security forces or its Shiite Muslim minority since last year, many of them claimed by Daesh.

Saudi state news agency SPA quoted an interior ministry spokesman as saying that the officer, Colonel Kitab Majed Al Hammadi, was shot dead in Al Arja area of Al Dawadimi province west of the Saudi capital.

The spokesman said security authorities were investigating the killing.

Daesh’s Amaq news website said the group's Saudi branch, known as the Nejd Province, carried out the attack and identified Hammadi as the director of internal security in Al Quwayiyah region.

Daesh views Shiites as heretics but is also bitterly opposed to Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab rulers.

The Nejd Province group claimed responsibility on Sunday for an explosion next to a police station south of Riyadh that killed one person and damaged police vehicles.