Abha bombing: Suicide attack in Saudi town mosque kills 15

Twelve members of the security forces among the dead

RIYADH:

A suicide bomber killed at least 15 people in an attack on a mosque used by members of a local security force in southwest Saudi Arabia on Thursday, the interior ministry said, an assault that an online statement said was carried out by Islamic State.

The attacker struck as men were praying in the mosque in the headquarters of the Special Emergency Force in Abha, the capital of Asir province, a ministry spokesman told state news agency SPA.

Twelve of those killed were members of the force and three were workers in the compound, the ministry said. It earlier put the toll at 13, but later said two of the wounded had died. A statement circulating on Twitter said an Islamic State suicide bomber had attacked a “military camp” in Asir province.



It did not mention a mosque and Reuters could not verify the statement’s authenticity. “He (the suicide bomber) was able to infiltrate security barriers and reach their wicked gathering inside a training camp in Abha City in the Asir area where the force of the explosion led to the death and injury of dozens,” the statement, purporting to come from Islamic State, said.

The governor of Asir province, Prince Faisal bin Khaled bin Abdul Aziz, visited the mosque and the wounded in hospital. “The attack is aimed at destabilising the country and sowing fear among citizens,” he said, quoted by SPA.

In May, two suicide bomb attacks on Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia were claimed by Islamic State. The first on a mosque in Qatif in the east of the kingdom killed 21 worshippers, and another four died in a bombing a week later at a mosque in Dammam.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 7^th, 2015.