May 29, 2015 IS group claimed attack on Shi'ite mosque in Saudi Arabia T

May 29, 2015

IS group claimed attack on Shi'ite mosque in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Press Agency claims that the attack was 'foiled' by security forces. At least four people were killed including the driver.

Rising sectarian tensions in the Wahabbi state

اقتباس :: Middle East Online: A car blast outside a Saudi mosque during Friday prayers killed three people and its driver, in an attack that was "foiled" by the authorities, the interior ministry said.
It also stated that the Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for the attack, the second on the kingdom’s Shia worshippers in a week.
The bombing was carried out by "soldier of the caliphate Abu Jandal al-Jazrawi," said an IS statement distributed by jihadist accounts on Twitter.
It said the bomber managed to "reach the target despite heavy protection" outside the Al-Anoud mosque in the coastal city of Dammam, in the Sunni kingdom's Shiite-populated east.
The explosion went off after the driver noticed security officials approaching the car and detonated the bomb. It was being driven to a parking lot near the Shia mosque of Al-Unood in the Gulf city of Dammam, during Friday prayers, said a ministry spokesman quoted by the Saudi Press Agency.
"When they headed towards it, it exploded killing four people, one of them believed to be its driver," he said.
There are 2.7 million Shia in Saudi Arabia, making up 12% of the population.
Most live in al-Ahsa and al-Qatif districts in the country's eastern province, a region which contains the bulk of the kingdom's oil. In 2011, the Shia in eastern Saudi Arabia took to the streets in the town of Qatif – the site of last Friday’s mosque bombing that killed 21 people, also claimed by the Islamic State - to protest decades of discrimination and repression. This developed into an uprising that was met with a violent crackdown; since then, 27 have been killed and more than 250 imprisoned, according to local Shia leaders and human rights activists who fear rising sectarianism fuelled by Riyadh's war against Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen.