The BBC reported Sunday that one of 47 people executed by Saudi Arabia was convicted of the 2004 shooting that killed one of its cameramen and wounded a correspondent.
The BBC World Service said that Adel al-Dhubaiti, among the 47 executed Saturday, was convicted over the shooting. Al-Dhubaiti took part in the attack outside the house of a suspected al-Qaida militant.
The June 2004 shooting in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, killed 36-year-old Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers. British reporter Frank Gardner, now the BBC's security correspondent, was seriously wounded in the attack and paralyzed, but survived.
Also on Sunday, protesters in Iran, angered at Saudi officials' executions of a prominent Shiite cleric who rallied for political reform and 46 other prisoners convicted of terrorism, broke into the Saudi embassy in Tehran, setting fires and throwing papers from the roof, Iranian media reported.
Police worked to disperse the crowd that had gathered late Saturday to express outrage at the execution earlier that day of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, an outspoken critic of the Saudi government who denied advocating violence. Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, the Shiite-majority country's top police official, rushed to the scene, the semi-official ISNA news agency said.
A “huge crowd of people rushed toward the entrance gate of the building passing through resisting police forces and managed to break the gate,” according to Sadra Saeidian of Mehr News.
Protesters scaled a chain-link fence protecting the embassy, took down the Saudi flag and set fires inside, according to tweets from journalist Sobhan Hassanvand at the privately owned Shargh newspaper. But the angry mob didn't destroy the flag because it is emblazoned with the Muslim statement of faith that Shiites and Sunnis share: "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet."
No one appeared to be injured, according to several Iranian media reports. Iranian authorities said 40 people had been arrested on suspicion of taking part in an attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran after the execution of an opposition Shiite cleric in the kingdom.
Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency quoted Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi announcing the arrests Sunday. The prosecutor said "investigations to identify other persons involved in this incident are ongoing."
Also in Iran, demonstrators attacked a Saudi consulate in the city of Mashhad with parts of the building set on fire, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported, citing Persian-media outlet Tabnak.
A war of words continued Sunday between top Saudi and Iranian leaders.
Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard compared Saudi Arabia's execution of an opposition Shiite cleric to attacks carried out by the extremist Islamic State group.
The Guard said in a statement Sunday that Saudi Arabia's "medieval act of savagery" in putting al-Nimr to death will lead to the "downfall" of the monarchy.
The comments by the Guard mirror those of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who also strongly criticized the sheikh's execution. Khamenei said Saudi Arabia will face "divine revenge" after the execution of a revered Shiite cleric.
Khamenei's website carried the comments by the ayatollah, who also criticized the ongoing Saudi-led war in Yemen against Shiite rebels, as well as the "persecution" of Shiites living in Saudi-allied Bahrain.
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