Police in Saudi Arabia have shot dead an "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) element, and an officer was gunned down in a separate incident, AFP reported Wednesday (March 8th).
Officers were called at 6 p.m. Tuesday to an apartment in Riyadh's al-Rayan district, where a suspect was "flaunting his support" for ISIL, the interior ministry said.
"He started to resist and waved a gun which he was carrying," forcing police to eliminate "the threat he posed", the ministry added. Another suspect was arrested.
ISIL has claimed a series of deadly shootings and bombings since late 2014 in Saudi Arabia.
Shortly before Tuesday's incident in Riyadh, a policeman was killed in Qatif, on the kingdom's Gulf coast, a separate ministry statement said.
In the late afternoon he was shot "from an unknown source" as he tried to leave a police station in his personal car, it said. The motive is being investigated.
At least nine policemen have been shot dead since 2014 in the Qatif area.
