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ISIL claims responsibility for Saudi mosque attack

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At least 21 people killed after suicide bomber detonates explosives during Friday prayers in Qatif province.

Qatif

by Al Jazeera

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has claimed in an online statement that it carried out a deadly suicide bomb attack at a mosque in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province of Qatif.

The statement said “the soldiers of the Caliphate” were behind Friday’s attack by a suicide bomber “who detonated an explosives belt” in the mosque in the Shia-majority city of Qatif.

The group identified the bomber as Abu Amer al-Najdi, and published a picture of him.

Earlier on Friday, the Saudi interior ministry said in a statement that a suicide bomber had set off an explosion during weekly prayers at a Shia mosque, leaving at least 21 dead.

“It has been established that an individual detonated a bomb he was wearing under his clothes during Friday prayers at Ali Ibn Abi Taleb mosque in Kudeih in Qatif province,” the statement, which was carried by the official SPA news agency, said.

The ministry spokesman called the attack an act of terrorism, vowing that “Security authorities will spare no effort in the pursuit of all those involved in this terrorist crime”.

Pictures posted on social media purported to show the devastation, with dead bodies strewn across the floor and shattered glass covering the courtyard of the mosque.

Saudi Arabia’s Shia population is mostly based in two oasis districts of the Eastern Province, Qatif on the Gulf coast, and al-Ahsa, southwest of the provincial capital al-Khobar.

The community accounts for between 10 to 15 percent of the total population.

The attack was the first to target the Shia community in Saudi Arabia since November when gunmen killed at least eight people in an attack on a religious anniversary celebration, also in the east.

Suicide bomber attacks Shia mosque in Saudi Arabia

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At least seven people reportedly killed after attacker detonates explosives during Friday prayers in Qatif province.

About 150 people were praying in the mosque when it was attacked [Twitter]

About 150 people were praying in the mosque when it was attacked [Twitter]

by Al Jazeera

A suicide bomber has detonated his explosives at a Shia mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia during Friday prayers, killing at least seven people and wounding several others, witnesses said.

One witness described a huge explosion at the Imam Ali Mosque in a village in the province of Qatif, where more than 150 people were praying.

An activist told the AFP news agency that at least four worshippers were killed, while a source told the Reuters news agency that there appeared to be at least 30 casualties in the attack. More recent estimates have placed the death toll higher.

Pictures posted on social media purported to show the devastation, with dead bodies strewn across the floor and shattered glass covering the courtyard of the mosque.

Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from the capital Riyadh, said authorities expected the death toll the rise.

Saudi Arabia’s Shia population is mostly based in two oasis districts of the Eastern Province – Qatif on the Gulf coast, and al-Ahsa, southwest of the provincial capital al-Khobar.

Qatif and al-Ahsa have historically been the focal point of anti-government demonstrations.

The kingdom’s Shia community accounts for between 10 to 15 percent of the total population. They say they face discrimination in seeking educational opportunities or government employment and that they are referred to disparagingly in text books and by some Sunni officials and state-funded clerics.

They also complain of restrictions on setting up places of worship and marking Shia holidays, and say that Qatif and al-Ahsa receive less state funding than Sunni communities of equivalent size.

The Saudi government denies allegations of discrimination.

Saudi Arabia sentences Shia leader Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr to death

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A protester holds up a picture of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr during a rally at the coastal town of Qatif, against Sheikh Nimr's arrest in this 8 July 2012 file photo. (Photo: Reuters - STR)

A protester holds up a picture of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr during a rally at the coastal town of Qatif, against Sheikh Nimr’s arrest in this 8 July 2012 file photo. (Photo: Reuters – STR)

– by Deutsche Welle

A Saudi court has sentenced prominent Shia leader Nimr al-Nimr to death for sedition. The verdict is likely to escalate further the tensions between the kingdom’s Shia minority and the Sunni-led authorities.

Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who is 54 years old, was found guilty of “disobeying” the kingdom’s rulers and of seeking “foreign meddling” in the country’s affairs, a thinly veiled reference to Iran, whose regime is dominated by Shias.

Al-Nimr had denied ever carrying weapons or calling for violence. He can appeal the sentence.

The well-known cleric was accused of being a driving force behind protests against Saudi Arabia’s Sunni authorities in the Eastern province that began in 2011. This followed an outbreak of violence between Shia pilgrims and religious police in Medina, the Muslim holy city.

He was shot in the leg and arrested by security forces in 2012, leading to more protests.

Shias feel marginalized

Al-Nimr’s family said the verdict set a “dangerous precedent for decades to come.”

Saudi Arabia’s roughly two million Shias live mainly in the east of the country, where the majority of oil reserves are located. Despite the region’s wealth, Shias in Saudi Arabia say they feel marginalized and discriminated against.

Protests, which are banned in Saudi Arabia, escalated after the Saudi regime intervened in neighboring Bahrain to support its Sunni monarchy.

In June this year, a Saudi court sentenced two people to death for “taking part in forming a terrorist group” and other crimes linked to the protests by Shias. Several others have received multi-year jail sentences.

Public beheadings

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 1,040 people were detained in Shia protests between February 2011 and August 2014. There are at least 280 still imprisoned.

Last year the conservative Islamic kingdom executed more people than any other country except China and Iran, most of them by public beheading.

(AFP, Reuters)

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