Latest News
- Court Sentences Bank Employee To 5 Years For Embezzling 100,000...
- Fake ‘Sheikh’ Sentenced To 2-yr As Court Overturns Verdict
- Justice Ministry New Service On The Sahel App
- Ministry Probes 68 Cases Of Illegal Charity, Funds Collection
- Globally, Kuwait Is Among The Top Consumers Of Incense And Oud O...
- Decrease Seen In Foreign Investment
- Kuwait Customs Seized 2 Containers Laden With Tobacco At Shuwaik...
- Unpaid Salaries, Accountant Beaten Up By Workers
- The Sahel App Was Not Hacked, A Spokesman Claims
- Four Expats Arrested For Stealing Copper Cables Worth 60,000 Din...
- Indian National Died In Abdalli Car Accident
- Work Permits And Foreign Worker Transfers Are Amended By PAM
Suicide Bomb Attack In Saudi Arabia
Four people, including two security guards, have been killed in an explosion outside the Prophet's Mosque in Saudi Arabia's Medina, Islam's second holiest city, sources tell Al Jazeera.
Photos on social media show smoke billowing from a fire outside the mosque where Prophet Muhammad is buried.
The cause of the explosion on Monday evening was not immediately known. Some reports suggested it was a suicide bombing, while others said a gas cylinder had blown up.
Qari Ziyaad Patel, 36, from South Africa, was at the mosque when he heard a blast just as the call to sunset prayers was ending.
Many at first thought it was the sound of traditional, celebratory cannon fire, but then he felt the ground shake.
"The vibrations were very strong," he told the AP news agency. "It sounded like a building imploded."
The blasts occurred just before the Maghreb (sunset) prayers when people were breaking their fast inside the mosque.Â
Â
Qatif explosions
Around the same time, two other explosions struck near a mosque in the eastern city of Qatif on the Gulf coast, residents said.
Witnesses said a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Shia mosque without causing any other injuries.
They reported seeing body parts lying on the ground in the city's business district.
"Suicide bomber for sure. I can see the body" which was blasted to pieces, a resident told the AFP news agency.
Nasima al-Sada, another resident, said "one bomber blew himself up near the mosque".
A third witness told Reuters news agency that one explosion destroyed a car parked near the mosque, followed by another explosion just before 7pm local time.
"We are in the last 10 days of Ramadan and those places are crowded because of that for Maghreb [sunset] prayers," Khaled Batarfi, a Saudi Gazette columnist, told Al Jazeera.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack.
Â
Early on Monday morning, two security officers were injured as a suicide bomberblew himself up near the US consulate in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.
Security officers became suspicious of a man near the car park of Dr Suleiman Faqeeh Hospital which is directly across from the US diplomatic mission. When they moved in to investigate, "he blew himself up with a suicide belt inside the hospital parking", the ministry said, adding that two security officers were lightly wounded.
In January, at least four people were killed in a suicide attack on a Shia mosque in the eastern al-Ahsa region.
In October, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in Najran, in which at least one person was killed.
ISIL (also known as ISIS) had also claimed responsibility for an attack at a mosque inside a special forces headquarters in the city of Abha in August 2015. Fifteen people were killed in that attack.
Source:Â Al Jazeera and agencies
Comments Post Comment
Leave a Comment
Trending News
-
Eid Al Fitr 2024: Crescent Moon Not Sighted In Sau...
08 April 2024
-
Kuwait Implements Home Biometrics Services Ahead O...
14 April 2024
-
When Will Eid Al Fitr 2024 Take Place In Qatar, Ba...
08 April 2024
-
On Sunday, The Meteorological Department Warns Of...
07 April 2024
-
Kuwait Airways Provides Update On Flight Schedule...
14 April 2024
-
Kuwait Airways Introduces Convenient Home Luggage...
15 April 2024
-
Gathering For Eid Al-Fitr Prayers: Kuwaiti Citizen...
10 April 2024
-
Winners Of Kuwait National Assembly 2024 Elections
06 April 2024
-
An Egyptian Expat Dies At Kuwait's Airport
11 April 2024
-
Bay Zero Water Park Kuwait: Summer Season Opens Ei...
11 April 2024
Mano Jul 04, 2016 at 09:48 AM
Where the world is heading