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Suicide bomber 'kills around 20 people' in attack on Shi'ite mosque in Saudi Arabia Isis says it carried out Saudi mosque bombing against Shia minority
(about 4 hours later)
A suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shi'ite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia during Friday prayers killing around 20 people and wounding more than 50, local residents and a hospital official said. At least 19 worshippers were killed at a mosque in Saudi Arabia on Friday when a suicide bomber targeted members of the country’s Shia Muslim minority as they attended Friday prayers.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, the first to target Shi'ite Muslims in Saudi Arabia since November when gunmen killed at least eight people in an attack on a Shi'ite religious anniversary celebration, also in the east where most of the country's minority Shi'ites live. sis, the Islamist group that has captured vast swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement, the group named the bomber as Abu Ammar al-Najdi. The attack took place at the Imam Ali mosque near Qatif in the east of the country, which is home to Saudi Arabia’s small Shia population.
The attack could further harm relations between Sunnis and Shi'ites in the Gulf region, where tensions have risen during weeks of military operations in Yemen by a Saudi-led coalition against Houthi fighters seen as proxies of regional Shi'ite power Iran. It is the second time the Shia community has been targeted in the last six months. Last November eight people were killed when a gunman opened fire at another Shia mosque in nearby al-Ahsa.
One witness described a huge explosion at the Imam Ali mosque in the village of al-Qadeeh where more than 150 people were praying. Shortly before that attack, the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, purportedly called on his followers to launch raids in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis responded by rounding up suspected jihadists.
"We were doing the first part of the prayers when we heard the blast," worshipper Kamal Jaafar Hassan told Reuters by telephone from the scene. Firas Abi Ali, head of Middle East analysis at IHS Country Risk, said: “The fact that [Isis] has managed to deploy a suicide bomber in spite of hundreds of reported arrests against suspected terrorists in the last few months highlights the continuing popularity of Salafist jihadist Wahhabi ideology in Saudi Arabia.
A spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry, calling the attack an act of terrorism, said the bomber detonated a suicide belt hidden under his clothes inside the mosque, causing a number of people to "martyred or wounded". “It appears from initial footage of the attack that the device deployed was especially sophisticated. An escalation to more destructive vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices would indicate growing capability despite the ongoing efforts of Saudi security services.”
"Security authorities will spare no effort in the pursuit of all those involved in this terrorist crime," the official said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA. Pictures posted on social media of the aftermath of the attack showed bodies lying among fallen masonry and shattered glass. Many of the walking wounded, wearing traditional white thawbs, were covered in blood.
A hospital official told Reuters by telephone that "around 20 people" were killed in the attack and more than 50 were under treatment at the hospital, some of them suffering from serious injuries. He said that a number of other people had been treated and sent home. “We were doing the first part of the prayers when we heard the blast,” Kamal Jaafar Hassan, a worshipper at the mosque, told the Reuters news agency. The Saudi interior ministry said in a statement that the country’s “security authorities will spare no effort in the pursuit of all of those involved in this terrorist crime”.
A photograph posted on social media showed the mutilated body of a young man, said to be the bomber. Other pictures showed ambulances and bloodied victims being taken away on stretchers. Saudi Arabia is about 90 per cent Sunni Muslim. With the civil war in Syria, the growing insurgency in Iraq and the internecine conflict in Yemen all being played out between actors on the Sunni-Shia divide, tensions in the region are at boiling point.
In April, Saudi Arabia said it was on high alert for a possible attacks on oil installations or shopping malls. Government officials have denied claims that they are assisting Isis and other extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, which are both run by Shia administrations. Riyadh has, however, launched air strikes on targets held by Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen, killing at least 1,500 people in seven weeks. The Houthis – who overthrew the elected Sunni president last year – are backed by Iran, the strongest Shia power in the region. In an attempt to prevent sectarian aggression within its own borders, the Saudi government has launched a crackdown against extremists of all hues. 
Reuters It has also promoted hardliners, and last month the former interior minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef became the Crown Prince and heir apparent. Last year he was responsible for policy on Isis.