Saudi militant suspect kills father and is shot dead by police

Saudi Arabian police shot dead a wanted suspected militant early on Tuesday after he killed his own father who had reported him to the authorities, the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried on state media.

“At 1 a.m. on Tuesday (2300 GMT on Monday), while security men were taking measures to apprehend a security fugitive, accompanied by the man’s father, he left his house and fired with an automatic weapon, killing his father and wounding two security men,” it said.

The security forces fired back, killing the man, according to the statement, which said that the authorities were investigating the incident but gave no further details.

The conservative Islamic kingdom is facing a wave of militancy, officials there say, from some hardline Sunni Muslims who have sworn allegiance to ISIL, the group waging wars in Iraq and Syria.

This year a Saudi militant cell affiliated with ISIL carried out two bombings of Shi’ite mosques, killing 25, and sympathisers also shot dead three policemen and wounded another in a series of attacks in Riyadh.

Sabq.org, a news website affiliated with the Saudi government, said the incident took place in the southern city of Khamis Mushait.

The Saudi authorities have detained hundreds of suspected militants over the past year, including people who planned attacks inside the country and others who sought to travel to Iraq, Syria, Yemen or Afghanistan to fight.