A teacher in the Jazan, in the south of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has stormed a education building armed with an automatic rifle, killing no less than six according to State media with confirmation from a senior Saudi Interior Ministry official, who said that the suspect was in custody.
While there is no question that Saudi Arabia is a violent country, violent even within governmental ranks. Mass shootings are a rarity. While the goverment executes its citizens and foreign workers on a regular basis, its citizens rarely pick up a gun and shoot their friends. Saudi Arabia made recent headlines for its execution of nearly 50 Shia clerics and others for “acts against the state.
Additionally, Saudi Arabia faces a serious problem in its fight against ISIS as well as a proxy war (with Iran(?) in neighboring Yemen.
Jazan, which is located on the kingdom’s southern border with Yemen, isn’t a stranger to violence. The city has been targeted a number of times with cross-border fire and missiles since Saudi Arabia entered the conflict in Yemen.
On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia announced that it had shot down a ballistic missile targeting Jazan, while in October two people were killed and another two injured when a gunman opened fire in a bank in Jazan.
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