American killed east of Saudi capital Riyadh

A U.S. citizen was killed and another was wounded east of the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday by unidentified gunman, Al Arabiya News Channel reported on Tuesday, citing the police.

Security forces arrested the gunman following the afternoon attack at a petrol station in eastern Riyadh, a police spokesman said in a statement carried by the SPA state news agency.

"The attack resulted in the killing of one person and wounding another and it turned out they were of American
citizenship," the statement said.

Police said the attack happened when the two stopped their vehicle at a filling station in an eastern district of the
capital.

A spokesman for the Saudi interior ministry said that the defendant is Abdul Aziz bin Fahad al-Rasheed, a 25-year-old Saudi citizen born in the United States.

Al-Rasheed has also worked at Vinnell Arabia along with the victim but was dismissed from his job due to remarks on his behavior, the spokesman said.

The perpetrator appears to have no ties with extremist groups, he added.

The last reported killings of Westerners by armed assailants in Saudi Arabia happened in 2007 when three French nationals were shot dead while camping in the northwest of the country.

[With Reuters]