Suicide bomber kills one at Saudi mosque

The attack on the al-Mashhad mosque occurred during evening prayers

RIYADH: A suicide bomber killed one worshipper and wounded others on Monday at a mosque in Saudi Arabia's southern Najran city bordering Yemen, the interior ministry said.

The attack occurred just after Maghrib early evening prayers at the Al-Mashad mosque in Najran's Dahza neighbourhood, the ministry said in a statement.

"As worshippers were leaving the mosque, a person wearing a suicide belt entered and blew himself up amongst them," it said, describing the incident as "a terrorist crime".

The wounded were taken to hospital, the ministry said without giving a number.

Al-Ekhbariya Saudi news channel earlier reported that, in addition to one person killed, 12 people were wounded, as was the suspect.



Neither the ministry nor the television specified whether the mosque belonged to the kingdom's Sunni majority or the Shia minority.

But roughly half of Najran's population belongs to the Ismaili Shia community.

Most of Saudi Arabia's Shias live in Eastern Province, where they have been targeted four times in the past year by bombings and shootings linked to the Islamic State group of Sunni extremists, who consider them heretics.

The latest attack in the east occurred on October 16 when a gunman fired on Shias commemorating Ashura in the Qatif area, before police shot him dead.

Ashura is one of the holiest occasions for the Shia faith.

In June, four Shias died preventing a suicide bomber from entering the hall of Al-Anoud mosque in Dammam city.

Days earlier, 21 people were killed in another Shia mosque bombing in Eastern Province.



Groups claiming affiliation with IS said they carried out the earlier blasts and the Ashura shooting.

During Ashura last year, gunmen killed seven Shia worshippers, including children, in the eastern town of Al-Dalwa. The interior ministry said the suspects had links to IS.

Najran is also on the frontline of a Saudi-led coalition war against Zaidi Shia Huthi rebels in Yemen.

Shells fired from Yemen have landed in Najran, and Saudi troops on the border have skirmished with rebels since the coalition in March began air strikes against the Huthis.

Saudi Arabia's southern region also saw a suicide bombing in August. Fifteen people died at a mosque frequented by members of a police special weapons and tactics unit in Abha city. IS also claimed that blast.