RIYADH: A Islamic State terrorist killed three people on Friday when he blew himself up in a car outside a Shia mosque in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the second such attack in a week. It was the third attack since November in the oil-rich Eastern Province where most of the country’s Shias live, and according to the interior ministry it killed three people and wounded four. The suicide bomber – disguised in women’s clothing – detonated his device at the entrance to the mosque during the Friday prayers, the official Saudi Press Agency cited a ministry spokesman as saying. “Authorities have managed to foil a terrorist crime targeting people performing the Friday prayers at the Al-Anoud mosque in Dammam,” the provincial capital, he said.The bomber “detonated the explosive belt he was wearing at the mosque entrance as security officials were on their way to inspect him,” he said, citing preliminary results of the investigation. The explosion happened just as the attacker’s vehicle stopped at a car park near the mosque, the spokesman said. IS, in a statement distributed by Jihadist accounts on Twitter, quickly said it was behind the attack, which it said was carried out by “soldier of the caliphate Abu Jandal al-Jazrawi”. It said the bomber managed to “reach the target despite heavy protection” outside the mosque. Friday’s blast comes exactly seven days after the jihadist group sent a suicide bomber into another Shia mosque in a village in Eastern Province. Twenty-one people were killed in the May 22 blast, which was also claimed by IS. Sympathisers of the extremist group are also accused by the Saudi authorities of gunning down seven members of the minority Shia community last November. The bombing, again coinciding with weekly Friday prayers, added to the distrust felt by the Shia minority of protection provided by security forces in the Kingdom. Activist Nassima al-Sada, who arrived at the site right after the latest attack, said the suicide bomber blew himself up after security volunteers tried to prevent him from entering the ladies side of the mosque in Dammam. After the previous week’s deadly attack, residents had set up security committees to search those entering mosques during prayers, witnesses said.They added that the authorities had not themselves brought in any extra security measures around the Shia mosques despite the attacks. Women were not allowed to pray at the mosque this week for security reasons, Sada said.Neighbouring Bahrain, which crushed a 2011 uprising by the Shia majority there, condemned the “terrorist bombing” which “aims to fuel sectarian divisions,” in a statement on the official BNA news agency. As the bomber struck in Dammam, cleric Osama al-Khayat, leading Friday prayers in Makkah, slammed last week’s “ugly crime” and urged all residents across the Kingdom to “stand up against this aggression... this great sin”. Saudi King Salman has vowed punishment for anyone linked to last week’s “heinous crime”.The country´s top cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, has called it a “criminal act” targeting national unity. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid condemned the suicide blast in Saudi Arabia and expressed sympathy for the victims.
