Gunman kills American in Saudi

Riyadh: A gunman shot dead one American and wounded another at a petrol station in the Saudi capital on Tuesday, in a rare attack on Westerners in the kingdom, police said.

Following the attack near King Fahd sports stadium, a shootout ensued between the gunman and the security forces, a police spokesman said.

The assailant was wounded and arrested, police said, without identifying him.

The Saudi Gazette, in a tweet, cited Interior Ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki as describing the suspect as a US-born Saudi.

The US Embassy was not available for comment. The shooting was the first deadly attack on Westerners in Saudi Arabia since several were killed in a wave of al-Qaeda violence between 2003 and 2006.

It comes as Saudi Arabia participates in a US-led campaign of air strikes against jihadists of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

But there was no immediate indication of any links between the attack and the more than three-week campaign.

Saudi pilots who participated in the initial late-September strikes against IS received online death threats.