An American resident was shot and wounded while driving with a fellow US citizen in Al-Ahsa on Friday.

The Eastern Province police said in a statement that shots were fired at the men at 2 p.m. on Friday afternoon as they were driving along Saladin Al-Ayobi Road.

The man is reportedly in a stable condition at a local hospital. The police have launched an investigation.

This is the fourth recent attack on foreigners since Gulf states joined a US-led coalition against Islamic State jihadists in Syria and Iraq in September.

Last month, Saudi authorities arrested three supporters of the IS group for shooting and wounding a Dane in his car in Riyadh.

Also in December, an assailant stabbed and wounded a Canadian while he shopped at a mall in Dhahran on the Gulf coast.

Canada and Denmark are also taking part in the air campaign against IS.

In November, Saudi authorities blamed IS-linked suspects for the killing of seven Shiites, including children, in Eastern Province.

Several Westerners in Saudi Arabia were killed in a wave of Al-Qaeda violence between 2003 and 2007.

(Additional input from Agence France Presse)