World Bulletin / News Desk

Saudi Arabia has captured a man who features on a list of Shi'ites being sought in connection with unrest in the eastern part of the kingdom after a shootout with security forces, state news agency SPA reported late on Monday.

The agency quoted an Interior Ministry spokesman as saying that a security contingent raided a house in the town of Awamiya on information that the wanted man, Abbas Ali al-Mizre, was present there along with eight other people who are being sought for drugs offences.

"The security men came under extensive gunfire from the trouble makers to prevent them from capturing the wanted (men)," the spokesman said, according to SPA.

"The situation was dealt with appropriately and there were no casualties from the gunfire, thanks be to God," he added.

Saudi Arabia last year ordered the arrest of 23 Shi'ites in the Eastern Province, where many of the kingdom's minority Muslims live, saying they were responsible for unrest.

Last month, Saudi security forces shot and killed Hussein Hassan Al Rabieah, also on the list of 23 wanted men. He was among 11 people, including a member of the security forces, to have been killed in the Eastern Province since November.