Suicide, shooting attack claims four – Worshippers overpower attacker

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DUBAI, Jan 29, (Agencies): A suicide bombing and gun attack on Shi’ite Muslim worshippers killed at least four people in eastern Saudi Arabia on Friday, the interior ministry and witnesses said, extending a spate of attacks on the kingdom’s Shi’ite minority. His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent on Friday a cable of condolences to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and expressed condemnation of the State of Kuwait against the mosque bombing.

His Highness the Amir said in his cable that this terrorist act which targeted innocent people is incompatible with the principles of Islam and all human values. His Highness the Amir expressed Kuwait’s full sympathy and support for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for all measures it has taken to preserve its security, reiterating position of Kuwait that rejects terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, as well its cooperation with the international community to eliminate it.

In the cable, His Highness the Amir sent his sincere condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims of this heinous terrorist attack, wishing the Kingdom and its people safety. His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and HIghness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al- Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-sabah sent similar cables. The assault on the Imam Rida mosque in the Eastern Province town of Mahasen, a mixed Sunni-Shi’ite district in which there is an extension of a compound where state oil company Aramco employees live, also wounded at least 18 people.

There was no early claim of responsibility but it resembled previous attacks by Sunni militants from Islamic State on Shi’ites it considers to be heretics. The oil-producing Eastern Province is home to Saudi Arabia’s Shi’ite community.

Executed
It came less than a month after Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia executed 47 people, most of them al-Qaeda militants convicted of attacks in the world’s biggest oil exporting state since 2003, as well as dissident Shi’ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. The Saudi interior ministry said security forces prevented two suicide bombers from entering the mosque, where one blew himself up, killing four people. Security forces exchanged fire with the second man and arrested him. Witnesses said one suicide bomber blew himself up outside the mosque, causing a power blackout inside.

They said worshippers overpowered a second attacker after he opened fire in the mosque where 200 people were performing Friday prayers. “The explosion happened outside the mosque, at the courtyard of the mosque, while another one entered with a machinegun. There are martyrs and wounded,” one witness said in an audio message circulated on social media. “The young men grabbed his machine gun and beat him up, but he did not die. The police then came and took him away and the wounded were taken in private cars because ambulance cars did not arrive quickly.” Another witness, speaking to Reuters by telephone, said a third attacker was believed to be involved in the attack and that he may have fled or disappeared.

Recording
A video recording provided by activists showed a crowd surrounding a man prone on the floor, turning him over and unfastening what they said was a suicide belt around his waist. Witnesses had earlier said three people died in the attack. Saudi Arabia has suffered a string of deadly shooting and bomb attacks in recent months, many of them claimed by the ultra-radical Islamic State. Islamic State is bitterly hostile to Gulf Arab monarchies and is seen to be trying to stoke Sunni-Shi’ite sectarian confrontation within Arabian peninsula states to destabilise and ultimately overthrow their dynasties.

Al-Qaeda has warned Saudi Arabia it will pay for the executions of dozens of its members on Jan 2, saying they were intended to be a new. year’s gift to Riyadh’s Western allies aimed at consolidating the Saud dynasty. Bahrain, meanwhile, condemned the “terrorist” attack, the Bahraini foreign ministry said. The Kingdom extends its condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims and wishes speedy recovery to the wounded in this despicable crime which is against the religion of Islam and contrary to all moral and human values, the ministry said in a statement, according to Bahrain News Agency (BNA). Manama also valued Riyadh’s efforts to solve problems and crises of Arab and Islamic countries, and its keenness to reinforce security, stability, and prosperity for its people, the statement said, adding that such terrorist acts will not succeed in shaking civil peace or igniting sedition among the one Saudi people. Bahrain reiterated its solidarity with Saudi Arabia, and support of all measures Riyadh takes to bolster security and stability in its territories

. It also reiterated its firm stand in denouncing terrorism in all its forms and manifestations regardless of the motives or justifications, vowing to support the international community to root out this dangerous phenomenon that jeopardizes people’s peace worldwide. At least two people were killed and seven others injured when a suicide bomber attacked a mosque in Saudi Arabia’s eastern governorate of Al-Ahsa, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced earlier. Jordan on Friday also condemned the suicide bombing. Jordanian Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Mohammed Al-Momani said in a press release that the explosion that rocked the Al-Imam Al-Rida Mosque in Al-Ahsa showed once more that “terrorism is blind and it that no one is excluded from its evils”. The minister, who is also spokesman for the Jordanian government, reiterated Jordan’s support for Saudi Arabia against all “terrorist acts” that target the Kingdom’s security and stability.

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