An Islamic State jihadist killed four people Friday when he blew himself up in a car outside a Shia mosque in Saudi Arabia, the second such attack in a week. The bombing, again coinciding with weekly Friday prayers, added to the distrust felt by among the Shia minority of protection provided by security forces in the predominantly Sunni kingdom.
It was the third attack to target Shias in the oil-rich Eastern Province where most of the country's Shias live, and according to the interior ministry it killed three people dead and wounded four. The suicide bomber - disguised in women's clothing - detonated his device at the entrance to the mosque during 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 Al-Anoud mosque in Dammam," the capital of Eastern Province, 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".
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