Saudi authorities have confirmed that four security force members were killed and five wounded on Monday after a suicide bombing took place in Madinah near the Prophet’s Mosque, Al-Haram Al-Nabawi.
According to the Saudi Gazette, Security spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said: “With Maghreb prayer drawing near on Monday in Madinah, security men suspected a man who was walking towards the Prophet’s Mosque across an open area that is being used as a parking lot for visitors. When they tried to stop him, he blew himself up resulting in his death and the martyrdom of four security men. Meanwhile, five other security men were injured. May they recover quickly.”
Two million visitors have so far arrived at Al-Haram Al-Nabawi during Ramadan to finish recitation of the Qur’an. The visitors were said to be undeterred and headed to perform Isha prayers.
Meanwhile, the Council of Senior Ulema said that the people who carried out terrorist attacks in Madinah, Jeddah and Qatif had “deviated from religion and digressed from the consensus of Muslims” and had “exceeded all sanctities.”
And the General President for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques, Sheikh Dr Abdulrahman Al-Sudais, also condemned the attacks.
He said that such criminal acts “expose the security of the country of the Two Holy Mosques to violation and chaos.” And he called on the youth of the Muslim Ummah to follow the teachings of the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet’s Sunnah and advised them to “keep away from extremism.”
No group has yet said it was behind the attacks, but suspicion has fallen on ISIS. The group has called for the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy and its supporters have previously carried out bombings in the Gulf state, targeting the Shia minority community and security forces.
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ISIS has also claimed, or been blamed for, a series of deadly attacks in the predominantly Muslim countries of Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq during the holy month of Ramadan.
Two other attacks also occurred on Monday.
In Monday’s first bombing, two security officers were wounded when a man detonated an explosive vest he was wearing near the US consulate in the coastal city of Jeddah shortly after midnight.
An interior ministry spokesman identified the assailant as a 35-year-old Pakistani expatriate called Abdullah Qalzar Khan, who it said had worked as a private driver in Jeddah for 12 years.
The second attack took place near dusk outside a Shia mosque in the mainly Shia eastern city of Qatif.
