Islamic State suicide bomber targets Shiite mosque in Saudi Arabia, killing 21 people 23 May 2015, An Islamic State (IS) suicide bomber has attacked a Shiite mosque in Sunni-ruled eastern Saudi Arabia, killing 21 people. The bomber struck during the main weekly prayers in the eastern province, where assailants linked to the Sunni extremist IS group killed seven members of the minority Shiite community in November. "An individual detonated a bomb he was wearing under his clothes during Friday prayers at Ali Ibn Abi Taleb mosque in Kudeih in Qatif province," an interior ministry spokesman said in a statement. Twelve people were in critical condition after the attack, with another 69 people wounded, the health ministry said. In a statement published online, IS said it was behind the bombing — the first time the group has officially claimed an attack in Saudi Arabia. It named the bomber as Abu Amer al-Najdi and included a picture of him. The statement said "the soldiers of the caliphate" were behind the attack by a suicide bomber "who detonated an explosives belt" in the mosque. It also pledged "dark days ahead" for Shiites until militants "chase them from the Arabian Peninsula". News websites in eastern Saudi Arabia posted photographs of bodies lying in pools of blood. Qatif hospital issued an urgent call for blood donations after the attack and called in off-duty staff to cope with the high number of casualties, one Shiite activist said. Attack had been feared by Shiite communityNaseema Assada, a resident of Qatif, said worshippers were celebrating the birth of revered Shiite Imam Hussein when the blast occurred. "The people are very angry," she said, adding that they tried to stop police from entering the Kudeih area. She said residents had feared such an attack was coming because the government was failing to curb hate speech on social media against the Shiite community. It is a criminal act aimed at dividing the sons of the nation ... and at sowing trouble in our country. Mufti of Saudi Arabia
"We don't want a repeat of what is happening in Syria or Iraq here. This is our country and we love it," she said. The mufti of Saudi Arabia, the highest-ranking Sunni cleric, denounced the attack in a statement broadcast on state television. "It is a criminal act aimed at dividing the sons of the nation ... and at sowing trouble in our country," he said. The attack comes as a Saudi-led coalition has since March 26 been bombing Shiite rebels in Yemen who have overrun much of the country and forced the government to flee abroad. Analysts said radical Sunnis in the ultra-conservative kingdom consider Saudi Shiites to be allies of the Yemen Houthi rebels. "This (attack) was unfortunately only a matter of time," Gulf analyst at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Frederic Wehrey said. Shiites have not joined in the "wave of Sunni nationalism" that has followed the Saudi-led campaign against the rebels in Yemen, and are considered by radical Salafists as a "fifth column" for the Houthis. Government promises to 'hunt down' attackersThe interior ministry spokesman said Saudi Arabia would "hunt down anyone involved in this terrorist crime carried out by people seeking to undermine national unity". The website of Arryadh newspaper posted pictures showing bloodied prayer rugs and part of the ceiling of the mosque that had caved in. First reports by witnesses said the suicide bomber appeared to be from Pakistan, but others said he was wearing traditional Afghan clothes. Kudeih is in the oil-rich eastern province and is home to most of Saudi Arabia's minority Shiite community, which has long complained of marginalisation in the Sunni-ruled kingdom. Saudi police have made a string of arrests in recent months of Sunni extremists suspected of plotting attacks aimed at stirring sectarian unrest in the eastern province. Last November, gunmen killed seven Shiites, including children, in the eastern town of Al Dalwa during the commemoration of Ashura, one of the holiest occasions of their faith. Four men carried out the attack after killing a man from a neighbouring village and stealing his car to use in the shootings, the interior ministry said. In April, authorities said they arrested 93 jihadists, including 62 suspected of links to the IS group who were plotting attacks to "incite sectarian sedition". Since 2011, protests and sporadic attacks on security forces have taken place in Shiite area. AFP |
