By Ahmed al-Masri

DOHA

Two Saudi policemen were injured in a bomb blast in eastern Saudi Arabia, according to the kingdom’s interior ministry on Tuesday.

An explosive device detonated at a security patrol on Monday in Al-Awamiyah village in the Qatif province, the official SPA news agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying.

The spokesman termed the bomb blast as a “terrorist crime” saying an investigation has been launched into the attack.

The attack was the third in the same area this month.

On May 16, a soldier was killed and another five were injured when their patrol came under a rocket attack in Qatif.

A week earlier, a child and a Pakistani resident were killed by gunfire in the same province.

Saudi Arabia’s Shia-majority eastern region, especially the provinces of Qatif and Dammam, has recently seen several attacks on security personnel.

In late March, the interior ministry announced that two “terrorists” had been killed and four others arrested in Qatif’s Al-Awamiya town.