Saudi offensive on Shia town enters 2nd week

Saudi forces have launched a fresh wave of shelling attacks against a besieged town in Saudi Arabia’s Shia-populated Eastern Province, as a fierce crackdown on protesters there enters its second week.

Saudi forces have launched a fresh wave of shelling attacks against a besieged town in Saudi Arabia’s Shia-populated Eastern Province, as a fierce crackdown on protesters there enters its second week.

Saudi troops, equipped with heavy weapons, carried out an offensive against Awamiyah, located some 390 kilometers northeast of the capital, Riyadh, late on Wednesday, firing a full array of weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), at different residential areas in the flashpoint town, London-based and Arabic-language Nabaa television news network reported.

Other reports said that Saudi armored vehicles stormed the al-Jamimah and al-Shokrollah neighborhoods of the town and rained down heavy fire on residential buildings, destroying civilian cars.

Earlier on Wednesday, Saudi forces had used incendiary bombs, filled with highly combustible chemicals, in the al-Mosara neighborhood.