A suicide bomber has killed four security officers and injured five others near one of Islam’s holiest sites in the Saudi city of Medina. In June, the Interior Ministry reported 26 terror attacks in the last two years. He arrived in Saudi Arabia 12 years ago to work as a driver, and was living in Jeddah with a wife and one of her parents.
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Saudi police stand guard at the site of a suicide bombing in the early hours of July 4, 2016, near the American consulate in the Red Sea city of Jeddah Security officers became suspicious of a man near the parking lot of Dr Suleiman Faqeeh Hospital, which is directly across from the USA diplomatic mission.
Four people and the attacker were killed, the source said, as people broke their fast on the last night of Ramadan.
Riyadh broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran in January after protesters attacked its embassy in the Iranian capital following the execution of a Shia cleric, and its consulate in Mashhad.
Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said authorities in Islamabad were working to get more details about the man.
“Security men noticed a suspicious person among those approaching the Prophet´s Mosque in an open area used as parking lots for visitors´ cars”.
“Terrorism is a global phenomenon and is not country- or people-specific”, Zakaria said.
Cook said ISIL has lost the city of Fallujah, from which it has controlled much of western Iraq and launched attacks into Baghdad.
Sheikh Abdullah, the FNC and the Muslim Council offered condolences to the king, government and people of Saudi Arabia and the families of the victims of the attacks, while wishing those injured a speedy recovery.
Al Azhar reaffirmed its support for Saudi Arabia in combating terrorism, urging all world countries and regional and worldwide organizations to stand side-by-side to uproot terrorism. “There is no other solution but to create a regional and global united front against it”, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.
At the same time as the Medina attack, another suicide bombing occurred near a Shiite mosque across the country in the Shiite-populated Gulf city of Qatif. Qatif is home to many Shiites, a minority in the Sunni-dominated kingdom.
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This story has been corrected to show that Saudi officials identified Pakistani national Abdullah Qalzar Khan as being the bomber behind the attack in Jiddah, not Medina.
