Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday that police have shot dead an ISIL Takfiri member, and that an officer was gunned down in a separate incident, the interior ministry said Wednesday.

The interior ministry said in a statement that officers were called at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Tuesday to an apartment in Riyadh’s Al-Rayan district where a suspect was “flaunting his support” for the IS extremist group.

“He started to resist and waved a gun which he was carrying,” forcing police to eliminate “the threat he posed,” the ministry added, noting that another suspect was arrested.

ISIL has claimed a series of deadly shootings and bombings since late 2014 in Saudi Arabia. Most attacks have targeted the Shiite minority and security forces, killing dozens of people.

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.

Source: AFP