Saudi police say officer shot dead in capital

Unidentified gunmen shot dead a policeman in the capital of Saudi Arabia on Friday, a police spokesman said.

Gunmen in a car opened fire at a patrol in southern Riyadh, killing one of its members, a spokesman for Riyadh region police said in a statement carried by the SPA state news agency.

It was the latest in a series of attacks on security forces in the kingdom which is part of a U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group militants in Syria.

Two Saudi police officers were wounded in a drive-by shooting in Riyadh in late March, days after the kingdom started to lead a campaign of air strikes targeting Shiite rebels in Yemen.

On March 22 the United States resumed consular services in the Gulf state following a week-long closure over unspecified “heightened security concerns.”

Saudi security forces also occasionally come under attack from opponents in the country’s Shiite-populated Eastern Province.

Attacks on police are rare in the capital, however.