Saudi forces kill toddler, young man in Shia-populated Qatif

Rasa - Saudi regime forces have shot dead a two-and-a-half year old child and a young man in the village of Awamiyah in the eastern Shia-majority Qatif region.

News ID: 429611

Date: 12 May 2017 - 22:43

RNA - Lebanon's al-Ahed news website reported on Friday that the child, identified as Javad al-Dagher, was killed on Thursday night while he was moving with his family near Awamiyah in Eastern Province.

It added that the child’s mother was also critically injured.

The report said a young man, identified as Ali Mohammad Kazim (pictured below), was also shot dead at the hands of the Saudi forces in Awamiyah ​on Friday.

The news website reported that the troops fired rocket-propelled grenades at al-Sayed Mohammad mosque in Awamiyah's al-Masoura neighborhood, completely destroying it.

The regime forces also attacked another mosque in the district of al-Deira in the same village.

They also fired RPG rounds randomly different neighborhoods of Awamiyah, heavily damaging electricity networks and water reservoirs of the village, which is under a siege and facing severe water shortage.

Three people were killed and dozens of others were injured on Wednesday, when the Saudi regime forces used gunships and heavy weapons in a fresh wave of attacks on Awamiyah.

The Shia-populated Eastern Province has been the scene of peaceful demonstrations since February 2011. Protesters have been demanding reforms, freedom of expression, the release of political prisoners, and an end to economic and religious discrimination against the oil-rich region.

The protests have been met with a heavy-handed crackdown by the regime. Security forces have ramped up security measures across the province.

In January 2016, Saudi authorities executed Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, who was an outspoken critic of the Riyadh regime. Nimr had been arrested in Qatif in 2012.

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