RIYADH: Gunfire aimed at security forces set fire to an oil pipeline in eastern Saudi Arabia on Saturday, official media said, three days after a dissident local Shia cleric was sentenced to death.

Officers in the kingdom “came under heavy gunfire from an unknown source, which led to a limited fire breaking out on a subsidiary oil pipeline,” the official SPA news agency said.

The attack occurred at 2am, the report cited the Eastern Province police spokesman as saying, adding that the fire had been extinguished.

The incident is similar to one last September in Awamiya, when gunfire also targeted police and triggered a pipeline fire.

The community has been the scene of periodic clashes involving security forces since demonstrations began in the east three years ago.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014