RIYADH (Reuters) - A member of Saudi Arabia’s security forces and a Bangladeshi resident were killed in an attack on a security checkpoint in Buraidah, a city in Qassim Province north of the capital Riyadh, the state news agency said on Sunday.

“Three terrorists opened fire on the security checkpoint located at Buraidah-Tarafiya road in Al-Qassim. The security forces fired back, killing two terrorists, and wounding the third,” said a statement published by the state news agency (SPA).

The authorities have begun a criminal investigation, which is still the subject of a security follow-up, and developments will be announced in due course, the statement added.

Qassim, a heartland of the kingdom’s ultra-conservative Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam, is one of the most conservative pockets of the country.

Analysts say many young men from the region joined al Qaeda in Yemen or militant groups in Iraq.

Attacks on Saudi security forces became more frequent over the past few years after the authorities crushed an al Qaeda insurgency more than a decade ago.

In May 31, local media said two assailants stabbed to death a traffic policeman in the western Saudi Arabian city of Taif and then exchanged gunfire with security forces at a nearby National Guard facility.