Attack at mosque kills four people

Suicide bomber targets Shiite worshippers

SAUDI ARABIA: A suicide bomber has blown himself up in the parking lot of a Shiite mosque in an eastern Saudi city and killed four people, in the second deadly bombing targeting the religious minority in a week.

It was reported that the bomber was parking his car at the entrance of the Imam Hussein mosque in the port city of Dammam, home to a large Shiite population, during yesterday’s prayers.

A security official said that the attacker had disguised himself in a black all-encompassing garment worn by women in Saudi and blew himself up after being stopped by security guards.

But eyewitnesses said that the attack was apparently foiled by a group of men.

Religious authorities had asked women to keep away from mosques during Friday prayers, as they are unable to carry out strict security checks on females and because they feared a repeat of a deadly attack one week ago against another Shiite mosque.

An attack last Friday killed 21 people in the village of al-Qudeeh, in the oil-rich eastern Qatif region.

Claimed by the Islamic State group, it was the deadliest assault by militants in the kingdom since a 2004 al Qaida attack on foreign worker compounds. Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority is a branch of Islam that both the Islamic State group and ultraconservatives in Saudi Arabia regularly denounce as heretical.

Mohammed Idris, an eyewitness, said that the suicide bomber attempted to enter the mosque but was chased by young men, who had set up check points at the entrance of the mosque.