Amir condemns Makkah terror plot

Suicide bomber blows himself up

KUWAIT CITY, June 24, (Agencies): His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent Friday a cable to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz to express Kuwait’s strong condemnation of the terrorist scheme against the Grand Mosque of Makkah.

In his cable, His Highness the Amir said that this terrorist plot contradicts

teachings of Islam and all religious and human values.

His Highness the Amir also voiced Kuwait’s support to all measures taken by the Saudi government to maintain the Kingdom’s security and to counter terrorist plots.

He also reiterated Kuwait’s condemnation of all acts of terrorism and its support to the international efforts to uproot and dry up resources of terrorists. He also lauded Saudi role in combatting terrorism and the vigilance of its security forces which helped derail the terrorist plot Friday.

His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah sent similar cables to the Saudi King.

A suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque as police disrupted a plot to target the holiest site in Islam just as the fasting month of Ramadan ends, Saudi security forces said Saturday.

The Interior Ministry said it launched a raid around Jeddah, as well as two areas in Makkah itself, including the Ajyad Al-Masafi neighborhood, located near the Grand Mosque.

There, police said they engaged in a shootout at a threestory house with a suicide bomber, who blew himself up and caused the building to collapse. He was killed, while the blast wounded six foreigners and five members of security forces, according to the Interior Ministry’s statement. Five others were arrested, including a woman, it said.

Saudi state television aired footage after the raid Friday near the Grand Mosque, showing police and rescue personnel running through the neighborhood’s narrow streets. The blast demolished the building, its walls crushing a parked car. Nearby structures appeared to be peppered with shrapnel and bullet holes.

The Interior Ministry said the thwarted “terrorist plan” would have violated “all sanctities by targeting the security of the Grand Mosque, the holiest place on Earth.”

“They obeyed their evil and corrupt self-serving schemes managed from abroad whose aim is to destabilize the security and stability of this blessed country,” it said.

The ministry did not name the group involved in the attack. The ultraconservative Sunni kingdom battled an al-Qaeda insurgency for years and more recently has faced attacks from a local branch of the Islamic State group. Neither group immediately