It has led to shootouts on the streets with Shia gunmen

Saudi Arabia is demolishing centuries-old homes in a Shia town, levelling a historic district that officials say has become a hideout for local militants. The destruction has sparked shootouts on the streets between Saudi security forces and Shia gunmen and stoked sectarian tensions that resonate around the region.

The violence in the Shia town of al-Awamiya, which is centred in the Sunni kingdom’s oil-rich east coast, adds a new source of instability at a time of increasing confrontation in the Gulf. Tensions between Saudi Arabia and its Shia-led rival Iran have spiked in recent weeks.

Also, Saudi Arabia and its allies severed ties with neighbouring Qatar, demanding among other things that it cut off ties with Iran. Bulldozers began demolishing al-Awamiya’s historic district on May 10.

Rise in violence

At least six security officers, six Shia gunmen and a number of civilians have been killed in al-Awamiya’s skirmishes, shootings and bombings this year, most of them in the weeks since government contractors began tearing down the town’s historical centre.

The old district is known as al-Mosawara, Arabic for the “walled fortress”, named for its 400-year-old walls that protected the area from raiders. Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki told The Associated Press that “terrorists in al-Awamiya... have increased their armed violence” since the start of the “development project in al-Mosawara”.

Security forces patrol the town’s streets in armoured vehicles, frequently coming under fire from militants.

Activists say security forces frequently open fire in the streets. A two-year-old girl died when shots were fired at her parents’ car, a shooting that activists blamed on police.

The sensitive security operation in al-Awamiya now rests with newly appointed Interior Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud.