A suicide bomber detonated a bomb at a parking lot outside the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, the second-holiest site in Islam, a Saudi security spokesman said.
Advertisement
Also on Tuesday, His Majesty sent a cable to the Saudi King, condemning the attacks and voicing solidarity with Saudi Arabia and the Saudis against terrorism.
TH said the measures were necessary after four Saudi security personnel were killed and five others wounded in a suicide bombing incident outside one of Islam’s holiest sites, the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah, yesterday.
The bomber detonated his explosives after he was stopped outside the Prophet’s Mosque in Madina, the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad and the holiest city in Islam after Makkah. The other attacks on Monday targeted the USA consulate in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and the Shiite minority in the east of the Sunni-dominated kingdom.
Suicide bombers hit three Saudi cities on July 4, in apparently coordinated attacks that targeted the United States diplomats in Jeddah and Shi’ite Muslim worshippers in Qatif, jolting the kingdom as people prepared to break their fast on the penultimate day of the holy month of Ramzan.
Two security officers were wounded in the city of Jeddah shortly after midnight in Monday’s first bombing attack, according to reports.
And in Qatif, an eastern city home to many members of the Shia minority, two explosions struck near a Shia mosque. Al-Nimr said that near the body of a suicide bomber was a auto bomb that also went off around the same time.
On Tuesday, Saudi authorities identified another bomber, who targeted the U.S. consulate in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah the previous day, as 34-year-old Pakistani Abdullah Qalzar Khan.
The ministry had earlier said that the explosion in Jeddah was carried out by Abdullah Qalzar Khan, a Pakistani taxi driver who was living in the city since 2004.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said in a message the people and government of Pakistan fully share the grief and shock of their Saudi brethren at this critical hour.
Saudi Arabia has seen similar bouts of violence at the hands of “Islamic State” (IS) inspired extremists.
Advertisement
IS group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called for attacks against Saudi Arabia, which is taking part in the US-led coalition bombing the jihadists in Syria and Iraq. In June, the Interior Ministry reported 26 terror attacks in the last two years.
