As many as 150 Shiite worshipers were inside "Imam Ali" Mosque in Qudaih area of the Saudi city of Qatif when the blast went off.
Several Twitter accounts for the Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the blast.
An interior ministry spokesman said an investigation has been launched into the incident and that more details will follow.
Last November, three masked gunmen killed five Shiites and injured nine others in the eastern town of Aldaloh in Ahsa Governorate.
Saudi authorities arrested six suspects in connection with November's attack.
Most of Saudi Arabia's minority Shiites live in the eastern region, where they have long protested against marginalisation in the Sunni-dominated kingdom.
Saudi security authorities have been involved in a war against internal terror and extremism. Terror cells linked to the IS have been recently dismantled.
Source:Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
22/5/15
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Related:
- Death toll from attack on Shi'ite mosque in Saudi Arabia at around 20...
The suicide attack on Friday on a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia has killed around 20 people, a hospital official said.
The official reached by telephone said more than 50 other people were wounded, including some who are in serious condition.
jpost.com by Reuters
22/5/15
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Twenty people were killed on Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Shia mosque in the eastern Saudi province of Qatif, Saudi media has reported...
ReplyDeleteSeveral other people were injured – some critically – by the bombing, the Arabic-language Saudi daily al-Riyadh said on its website.
It added that the suicide bomber's body was cut into two parts.
Survivors, meanwhile, said the mosque was full of people before the bombing took place.
They added that the suicide bomber carrying out the attack wore an explosive belt that contained a large amount of explosives.
Earlier in the day, the Saudi news channel al-Arabiya said six people were killed in the suicide bombing.
This is the first attack to target the predominantly Shia eastern part of Saudi Arabia under King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
aa.com.tr
Iran condemns Saudi Shia mosque bombing...
ReplyDeleteRegional Shia power Iran on Friday denounced a suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in Saudi Arabia that killed and wounded several people.
Official IRNA news agency quoted foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham as "vigorously condemning" the attack, which has been claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
"The fight against terrorist and extremist groups... must be a priority for all countries," she said, and called on Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia to find and punish those responsible for the attack.
Saudi Arabia said a suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt during the main weekly Friday prayers in a mosque in the city of Qatif, in the Shia-populated Eastern Province.
It did not give a specific casualty toll but said several people were killed and wounded.
Tensions between Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran have soared following the launch in March of a Riyadh-led air campaign against Shia Huthi rebels in Yemen.
AFP