Multiple suicide bombings rock Medi

Multiple suicide bombings rock Medina, Qatif and Jiddah, at least 5 dead

COMPILED FROM WIRE SERVICES
ISTANBUL
Published
16 hours ago

Photo taken from Twitter
Suicide bombers struck three cities across Saudi Arabia on Monday, in an apparently coordinated campaign of attacks as Saudis prepared to break their fast on the penultimate day of the holy month of Ramadan.

The explosions targeting U.S. diplomats, Shiite worshippers and a security headquarters at a mosque in the holy city of Medina follow days of mass killings claimed by Daesh, in Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq. The attacks all seem to have been timed to coincide with the approach of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of the fast.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said early Tuesday that 4 security officers were killed, 5 were wounded in the suicide bombing in Medina.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on late Monday, offering his condolences for the Saudis who were killed and injured in multiple bombings the same day, and condemned terrorism.

The two leaders also noted their determination to strengthen ties between the two countries.

Both Erdoğan and Salman exchanged their greetings for the Turkish and Saudi nations that will mark the Islamic Eid al-Fitr holiday on Tuesday along with the rest of the Muslim world.

Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement later on the same day in which it condemned the terror attacks in Saudi Arabia. "We will continue cooperation with Saudi Arabia against terror," the ministry added.


A Saudi security official said an attacker parked a car near the U.S. consulate in Jeddah before detonating the device. The official said the government was checking the reports of blasts in Qatif and Medina.

In the only one of the three attacks that appeared to have caused many casualties, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb near the security headquarters of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, the second-holiest site in Islam.

Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television said an initial death toll from the Medina blast included three suicide bombers and two security forces officers.

A video sent to Reuters by a witness to the aftermath of the Medina bombing showed a large blaze among parked cars in the fading evening light, with a sound of sirens in the background. A picture sent to Reuters showed a burnt and bleeding man lying on a stretcher in a hospital.

Other pictures circulating on social media showed dark smoke billowing from flames near the Mosque of the Prophet, originally built in the 7th century by the Prophet Muhammad, who is buried there along with his first two successors.

The sprawling mosque is visited by millions of Muslims from around the world each year during pilgrimages to Mecca. The area would have been teeming with pilgrims for prayer during the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends this week.

In Qatif, an eastern city that is home to many members of the Shiite minority, at least one and possibly two explosions struck near a Shi'ite mosque.

Witnesses described body parts, apparently of a suicide bomber, in the aftermath.

A resident of the city reached by telephone said there were believed to be no casualties there apart from the attacker, as worshippers had already gone home to break their fasts. Civil defence forces were cleaning up the area and police were investigating, the resident said.

A video circulating on social media and purporting to show the aftermath of a Qatif blast showed an agitated crowd on a street, with a fire raging near a building, and a bloody body part lying on the ground. Reuters could not immediately verify the video.

The attack in Qatif did not appear to cause any injuries, said resident Mohammed al-Nimr, whose brother is Nimr-al-Nimr, a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric executed in January. He told The Associated Press the bomber detonated his suicide vest when most residents of the neighborhood were at home breaking the daily Ramada