Saudi police arrested 38 people in the holy city of Medina after fighting erupted near Islam's oldest mosque Al-Quba on the Shiite religious holiday of Ashura, Saudi media reported on Saturday.
Several people suffered minor injuries in Thursday's clashes between "groups of youths," the press reports said..
Three security officials were also wounded, the Al-Madina newspaper said.
The Shiite website Rasid.com said the fighting pitted members of Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority against majority Sunnis.
Many of the kingdom's top Sunni clerics have condemned Shiites as having rejected "true" Islam.
Thursday was the climax of Ashura, a 10-day commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, one of the key figures of the Shiite faith.
A grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, Hussein was killed in 680 AD by the armies of the caliph Yazid in a battle in Karbala, Iraq.
There were clashes between Shiite and Sunni groups near the Al-Quba mosque in April last year. Police said they were triggered by "an argument between teenagers during a football match".
Several people suffered minor injuries in Thursday's clashes between "groups of youths," the press reports said..
Three security officials were also wounded, the Al-Madina newspaper said.
The Shiite website Rasid.com said the fighting pitted members of Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority against majority Sunnis.
Many of the kingdom's top Sunni clerics have condemned Shiites as having rejected "true" Islam.
Thursday was the climax of Ashura, a 10-day commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, one of the key figures of the Shiite faith.
A grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, Hussein was killed in 680 AD by the armies of the caliph Yazid in a battle in Karbala, Iraq.
There were clashes between Shiite and Sunni groups near the Al-Quba mosque in April last year. Police said they were triggered by "an argument between teenagers during a football match".
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