Hostage taker kills Saudi security agent in Riyadh

An unidentified hostage taker has killed a member of Saudi security forces and injured two others in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

According to the Saudi police on Monday, the incident took place after the police tried to free three captives held by the armed man in Riyadh on Sunday.

“An unknown man carrying an automatic weapon took three laborers hostage near al-Hamoud mosque … and threatened to shoot passersby,” state news agency SPA quoted a Saudi police spokesman as saying in a statement.

“When police surrounded him and asked him to drop his weapon, he opened fire heavily,” the statement added.

The statement further said that the gunman, whose motive was not known yet, was wounded and arrested subsequently.

Earlier on Sunday, another member of Saudi Arabia’s security forces was killed in the eastern part of the country.

Saudi officials have linked the recent rise of attacks in the country to conflicts in Iraq and Syria. The Takfiri terrorists currently control parts of eastern Syria and Iraq’s northern and western regions.

Senior Iraqi and Syrian officials have blamed Saudi Arabia, Qatar and some other Persian Gulf Arab states for the growing terrorism in their country.