“The significance of this attack can not simply be measured in terms of the four policemen who were reported to have been killed, and the physical damage”.
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Hamad had a history of drug abuse, the ministry said.
Night falls over Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (The Mosque of the Prophet) in Medina, the second holiest mosque in Islam.
The first attack on Monday took place in the western city of Jeddah, where two security officers were wounded when the suicide bomber blew himself up near the U.S. consulate.
Muslim worshippers gather after a suicide bomber detonated a device near the security headquarters of the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, July 4, 2016.
Earlier, the Saudi authorities identified the suicide bomber who struck outside the US Consulate in Jeddah as a Pakistani resident of the kingdom who had arrived 12 years ago to work as a driver. All the three have not obtained Saudi national identity cards.
Manzoorul Haq Pakistan’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia declined to comment on the report.
Monday’s attacks on Islam’s spiritual home came as Muslims prepare for the feast this week marking the end of the holy fasting month Ramadan.
Two security officers were lightly injured in the incident. The ministry said none of them had Saudi IDs.
The group claimed responsibility for Sunday’s auto bomb attack on a shopping street in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in which at least 213 people were killed.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the interior minister, while visiting wounded policemen in Jeddah said the attacks would “only increase our solidarity and make us stronger”. ISIS has carried out a series of bombing and shooting attacks in Saudi Arabia since mid-2014 that have killed scores of people, mostly members of the Shiite Muslim minority and security services. No consular staff were hurt.
“When security guards intercepted him he blew himself up”, an unnamed Interior Ministry spokesman told state-run al-Ikhbariya television news network.
The group also considers Shiites to be heretics.
Saudi security officials say Islamic State’s supporters inside the kingdom mainly act independently from the group in Iraq and Syria, its main areas of operations.
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The Prophet’s Mosque marks the place where Mohammed is buried and attracts millions of pilgrims each year.
