A suicide bomber detonated himself at a Shiite mosque Friday in the predominantly Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the country’s official press agency said, killing an unspecified number of worshipers in an attack that has been claimed by ISIS.
If ISIS’ claim of responsibility is true, it would be a rare attack by the Sunni Islamist terror group inside Saudi Arabia.
The explosion happened as Shiite worshipers performed Friday prayers at the Imam Ali mosque in the Persian Gulf-area village of Qudayh, in one of Saudi Arabia’s few Shiite population centers, the Qatif governorate in the Eastern Province, the official Saudi Press Agency said.
Social media posts from purported witnesses appear to show images of bodies amid shattered glass and concrete. The Saudi Press Agency said a number of people were killed and wounded but didn’t release numbers.
Tweets from ISIS supporters relayed a statement from the group claiming responsibility for the attack. The statement included details of the operation and a photograph of the alleged bomber.
ISIS, the extremist group that has taken over parts of Iraq and Syria for what it calls its Islamic caliphate, hasn’t made many publicized attacks in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps the most recent occurred in January when Saudi Arabia said that ISIS fighters broke through Saudi defenses on the Iraqi-Saudi border, killing three Saudi soldiers.
Shiite Muslims are a minority in Saudi Arabia, where 85% to 90% of the citizens are Sunni Muslims.
