People gather after the blast inside a mosque in Qatif. PHOTO: AFP
RIYADH:
A suicide bomber killed 21 worshippers during Friday prayers in a packed Shia mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia, residents and the health minister said, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State militant group.
The bombing appeared to be the first time that the Islamic State, which has seized control of much of Syria and Iraq, had officially claimed to have mounted an attack in the kingdom. No independent confirmation of the claim could be made though.
The kingdom’s Eastern Province has been hit by previous attempts by extremists to foment sectarian tensions.
The interior ministry said a suicide bomber detonated a bomb at the mosque in Qatif, SPA news agency reported.
“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,” the ministry spokesman said in a statement.
He did not give a specific casualty toll but said several people were killed and wounded in the attack.
An activist said at least four worshippers were killed and others wounded, and 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, the activist said.
The attack on Friday in eastern Saudi Arabia has killed around 20 people, a hospital official said. The official reached by telephone said more than 50 other people were wounded, including some who are in serious condition.
Naseema Assada, a resident of Qatif, said worshippers were celebrating the birth of Hazrat Imam Hussein (RA) when the blast occurred.
“The people are very angry,” she said, adding that they tried to stop police from entering the Kudeih area.
Residents had feared such an attack was coming, she said, because the government was failing to curb hate speech on social media against the Shia community.
“We don’t want a repeat of what is happening in Syria or Iraq here. This is our country and we love it.”
The mufti of Saudi Arabia, the highest-ranking 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 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.
Saudi police have made a string of arrests in recent months of extremists suspected of plotting attacks aimed at stirring sectarian unrest in the Eastern Province.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2015.
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