Local sources in the al-Awamiyah town in Saudi Arabia\u2019s Shia-populated Eastern Province say the locals have been told to either leave their homes or face death at the hands of security forces.<\/p>\n
Since the early hours of Saturday, the Saudi forces have started taking the town under heavy shellfire, virtually barricading the public in their homes, PRESSTV reported.<\/p>\n
The sources said sharpshooters were training their fire on various targets from atop rooftops and inside armored vehicles. Ali al-Debisi, the leader of a Europe-based Saudi rights body, said the locals are afraid of going out for fear of coming under sniper fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegime forces, meanwhile, continued to evict people from their homes in the town,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
The Qatif region in the province, where the town is located, has witnessed sporadic deaths of security personnel at the hands of unknown gunmen.<\/p>\n
Blaming the Shia population for the attacks, Riyadh first started ordering security raids against the region before besieging the town and subjecting it to a so-called renovation project.<\/p>\n
The project, which has featured wholesale destruction of age-old structures and rampant raids against various targets, has especially targeted the town\u2019s historic Almosara neighborhood, where the government has been toughening living conditions in order to make people leave.<\/p>\n
The sources said that the forces were now offering people \u2018safe conduct\u2019 to desert Almosara, and were combing the neighborhood for \u2018holed-up terrorists.\u2019 Activists said that the residents were resisting the eviction attempts.<\/p>\n
On May 24, UN experts criticized the ongoing attempts to demolish Almosara and accused the Saudi kingdom of erasing cultural heritage, violating human rights, and forcing residents to flee their homes.<\/p>\n
A month earlier, UN special Rapporteur Leilani Farha had warned that the controversial project threatened the historical and cultural heritage of Awamiyah with irreparable harm.<\/p>\n
“Residents have been pressured in many ways, including through power cuts, to vacate their homes and businesses without adequate alternative resettlement options, leaving them at best with insufficient compensation and at worst, with nowhere to go,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Local sources in the al-Awamiyah town in Saudi Arabia\u2019s Shia-populated Eastern Province say the locals have been told to either leave their homes or face death at the hands of security forces. Since the early hours of Saturday, the Saudi forces have started taking the town under heavy shellfire, virtually barricading the public in their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,6],"tags":[11],"yoast_head":"\n