Stray bullet kills Indian after Saudi arrest raid

Stray bullets killed an Indian labourer and wounded three others in Saudi Arabia after a security operation that killed a wanted Bahraini, an Indian community source said Wednesday.

"Terrorist" suspect Ali Mahmoud Ali Abdullah was shot dead after opening fire on officers sent to arrest him on Tuesday afternoon at a farm in the town of Awamiya, the interior ministry announced.

The labourer was killed and three other Indians were wounded when "a few bullets entered the room" where they were staying, the Indian source said, asking for anonymity.

Two of the wounded sustained minor injuries while the third was apparently hit in the shoulder, the source added.

Interior ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki told AFP in Riyadh that "in the operation we carried out there were no casualties" other than the suspect.

A hospital reported having taken in one dead Indian and three wounded at 1:00 am on Wednesday, well after the security operation had ended, the spokesman said.

"I don't see any link," he told AFP. "It's being investigated by the police."

Ibrahim AlMugaiteeb, president of the Human Rights First Society-Saudi Arabia, said there was "very heavy" shooting in Awamiya on Tuesday.

"It was an exchange of fire" with the surrounding district of Qatif, which is Shia-dominated, he said.

AlMugaiteeb said he was aware of only one local resident lightly wounded, in addition to the killing of Abdullah.

On Tuesday evening, gunfire still sounded in the Gulf coast community where black smoke hung in the air from tyres burned in the streets by protesters, a witness told AFP.

The interior ministry said an automatic weapon and a pistol were recovered from the slain suspect.

"Available evidence showed he participated in committing a number of terrorist crimes, destabilising security and public order in Qatif," it said, cited by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Awamiya, a town of about 30,000, has been the scene of repeated incidents since 2011.

AlMugaiteeb said the suspect killed on Tuesday was a nephew of Salman al-Faraj "who is one of those most wanted by the Saudi government".