Saudi says blast targeted security patrol

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The spokesman for Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry said a militant bomb attack killed a security officer and wounded six others in a predominantly Shiite town in the kingdom’s restive eastern province.

Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said in a statement that was released Sunday evening that the attack targeted a security patrol in the morning hours in the al-Mosawara district in the heavily Shiite-populated governorate of Qatif.

He said the wounded men were in stable condition in a hospital and that an investigation was underway into this “terrorist crime.”

Violence between Shiite militants and security forces in the province has increased in recent weeks.