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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia—A suicide bomber unleashed a blast in a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia as worshippers commemorated the birth of a revered saint, killing at least 21 people and wounding dozens more in the deadliest attack seen in the kingdom in more than a decade. Loyalists of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the bombing.
The claim of responsibility, made in a statement circulated on pro-IS Twitter feeds, could not be independently confirmed. It was issued by what purported to be a Saudi branch of the Islamic State group, which is based in Syria and Iraq, but it was not known if the perpetrators had a direct connection with the group’s leadership or were sympathizers acting independently in its name.
Still, the bombing highlighted an increasing activeness of IS sympathizers in Saudi Arabia at a time when sectarian tensions have grown over the war in neighboring Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is leading an air campaign against Shiite rebels. Past months have seen a string of smaller attacks on security forces blamed by Saudi officials on the Islamic State group, and in late April, Saudi officials arrested 93 people they said were involved in an IS plot to attack the US Embassy and other targets.
Friday’s bombing took place in the village of al-Qudeeh in the eastern Qatif region, the heartland of Saudi Arabia’s Shiite Muslim minority, which has long complained of discrimination in the country, ruled by the ultraconservative Wahhabi interpretation of Sunni Islam.
The bomber stood among the worshippers in the Imam Ali mosque then detonated his explosives as people began to file out, Habib Mahmoud, managing editor for the state-linked Al-Sharq newspaper in Qatif, told The Associated Press. A local activist, Naseema al-Sada, told the AP by telephone from Qatif that the worshippers were commemorating the birth of Imam Hussain, a 7th century figure revered among Shiites.
AP