JEDDAH: A suicide bomber blew himself up during Friday prayer at a mosque in the village of Al-Qadeeh in eastern Saudi Arabia, killing 21 and wounding 100 others.
“A suicide bomber detonated explosives he hid under his clothes as people performed Friday prayer at the Imam Ali Ibn Abi Taleb Mosque in the village of Al-Qadeeh, in Qatif province,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The explosion killed the suicide bomber and a number of worshippers and injured several others, the ministry added.
“We were doing the first part of the prayer when we heard the blast,” worshipper Kamal Jaafar Hassan told Reuters by telephone from the scene.
Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh condemned the attack as an attempt to divide the nation.
“We must understand that our country’s enemies want to corrupt and break up the Saudi nation,” he said. Saudis must stand together and not be deceived by the schemes of the enemy, he said.
Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Abdullah Sanad, president of Haia, denounced the attack as a “terrorist crime” and “a failed attempt to divide the nation.”
Slamming the attack, the general secretariat of the Supreme Judicial Council said it was important for citizens to collectively tackle the country’s enemies.
Sheikh Fahad Al-Majed, general-secretary of the Council of Senior Scholars, described it as “a heinous crime.” He said these terrorists “have now proven that they have foreign agendas.”
Al-Majed said Saudis would emerge stronger from this incident and “defeat the terrorists who want to undermine the country’s security, prosperity and stability.”
Ambulances and Civil Defense personnel arrived at the scene, taking the injured to Mudar, Qatif Central and Aramco hospitals,'' a statement of the Health Directorate said. Police investigators also rushed to the scene, collecting evidence.
The dastardly act has unleashed a storm of protests and condemnation from Saudi bloggers on the social media who said that any such act would create a sectarian divide among the fully integrated Saudi society.
“Security authorities will spare no effort in the pursuit of all those involved in this terrorist crime,” an official statement said.
The Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility for the heinous crime. The claim was posted on Twitter with an image of the bomber by an account that is a reliable source, said the BBC.
The terror group also owned up a bomb blast at a Houthi mosque in Sanaa on Friday that wounded 13 people.
“Members of the caliphate in Sanaa have detonated an explosive device in a Houthi mosque in the people's district...which led to the death and injury of many of them “ said the Islamic State.