second-holiest site in the Saudi city of Medina, one of three attacks in
the kingdom on a single day.
Religious
and political leaders across the Middle East denounced the attack near
the Prophet’s Mosque that left four dead and came as Muslims prepare for
the feast this week marking the end of the holy month Ramadan.
There
were no claims of responsibility for Monday’s bombings in Medina,
Jeddah and the eastern city of Qatif, but the Islamic State of Iraq and
the Levant (ISIL) group had urged its supporters to carry out attacks
during Ramadan.
The
jihadist group has claimed or been blamed for a wave of shootings and
bombings during the holy month this year, including in Orlando,
Bangladesh, Istanbul and Baghdad.
The
suicide bombing in Medina came during sunset prayers at the mosque —
where Islam’s Prophet Mohammed is buried and which attracts millions of
pilgrims each year.
The Saudi interior ministry said officers became suspicious of a man heading for the Prophet’s Mosque through a parking lot.
“As
they tried to stop him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt
causing his death and the death of four police,” the statement said,
adding that five others were wounded.
The targeting of Medina caused widespread outrage, both in Saudi Arabia and across the Muslim world.
The head of Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council, the kingdom’s main government advisory body, called it an “unprecedented” incident.
“This
crime, which causes goosebumps, could not have been perpetrated by
someone who had an atom of belief in his heart,” Abdullah al-Sheikh
said.
Cairo-based Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, condemned the attacks and stressed “the sanctity of the houses of God, especially the Prophet’s Mosque.”
Saudi
Arabia’s supreme council of clerics said the blasts “prove that those
renegades… have violated everything that is sacred.”
The attack drew condemnation across Islam’s religious divide, with Shiite power Iran calling for Muslim unity after the attacks in its Sunni-dominated regional rival.
“There
are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shiites
will both remain victims unless we stand united as one,” Iranian Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter.
Lebanon-based
Shiite militant group Hezbollah — which Saudi Arabia accuses of
supporting “terrorist acts” across the region — also denounced the
Medina attack as “a new sign of the terrorists’ contempt for all that
Muslims consider sacred.”
The governments of Turkey and Lebanon joined in the condemnation, while Iraq said the attacks amounted to “heinous crimes”.
Middle
East expert Madhawi al-Rasheed said the attack in Medina appeared aimed
at humiliating the Saudi government, the guardian of Islam’s holiest
sites.
“It’s
an attempt to actually embarrass the Saudi government because it boasts
of protecting the pilgrims and the holy places,” said Rasheed, a
visiting professor at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East
Institute.
There
also seemed to be an “organised effort by the perpetrators to
coordinate their work,” potentially signalling a worsening security
situation in Saudi, she said.
At
the same time as the Medina attack, another suicide bombing occurred
near a Shiite mosque across the country in the Shiite-populated Gulf
city of Qatif.
The Saudi interior ministry said “the body parts of three people were found” at the site but had not yet been identified.
Nasima al-Sada, a Qatif resident, called the attackers crazy and said: “I don’t know where they get this idea.”
Monday’s
first attack happened in the western Saudi city of Jeddah, where two
police officers were wounded in a suicide bombing near the US consulate in the early hours.
The
interior ministry said a Pakistani resident, Abdullah Qalzar Khan, 35,
carried out the Jeddah attack. He had been living with his wife and her
parents in the city for 12 years.
The US embassy in Riyadh reported no casualties among consulate staff during the attack, which coincided with the US July 4 Independence Day holiday.
Since
late 2014 a series of bombings and shootings claimed by ISIL in Saudi
Arabia has targeted minority Shiites as well as members of the security
forces, killing dozens of people.
Most of the attacks have been staged in Eastern Province, home to the majority of Shiites in the Sunni-dominated Gulf state.
ISIL
leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called for attacks on Saudi Arabia,
which is taking part in the US-led coalition bombing the jihadists in
Syria and Iraq. The group also considers Shiites to be heretics.
ISIL spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani had in late May urged the group’s supporters to carry out attacks during Ramadan.