{Four security guards killed at Prophet’s Mosque in Medina in third attack to hit kingdom in one day.}<\/p>\n
Four security officers have been killed and five others wounded in a suicide attack outside one of Islam’s holiest sites, Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry said.<\/p>\n
The bombing at the Prophet’s Mosque in the city of Medina was the third attack to hit the kingdom on Monday, following blasts in the cities of Jeddah and Qatif.<\/p>\n
Photos of Medina posted on social media showed smoke billowing from a fire outside the mosque where Prophet Muhammad is buried.<\/p>\n
“Four security guards were martyred and five others wounded as a result of their opposition to the suicide attacker who detonated explosives near them as he was on his way to the mosque,” the ministry said on Twitter.<\/p>\n
The blast struck moments before sunset prayers when people were breaking their fast inside the mosque. <\/p>\n
The mosque, which is also known as Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, is visited by pilgrims from around the world during the final days of the fasting month of Ramadan.<\/p>\n
Qari Ziyaad Patel, 36, from South Africa, was at the mosque when he heard the blast just as the call to prayer was ending.<\/p>\n
He said many at first thought it was the sound of traditional, celebratory cannon fire, but then he felt the ground shake.<\/p>\n
“The vibrations were very strong,” Patel told the AP news agency. “It sounded like a building imploded.”<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia’s state-run news channel, Al-Ekhbariya, aired live video of thousands of worshippers praying inside the mosque hours after the explosion.<\/p>\n
The mosque is considered to be Islam’s second holiest site after the Sacred Mosque, or Masjid-al-Haram, which surrounds the Kaaba in the city of Mecca.<\/p>\n
Following the attack in Medina, Muslims around the world expressed their outrage. <\/p>\n
Iran’s Foreign Minister Javed Zarif, writing on Twitter, said: “There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shiites [Shias] will both remain victims unless we stand united as one.”<\/p>\n
Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, tweeted: “It’s time we work together to save our religion from these deadly criminal gangs.”<\/p>\n
Qatif explosions<\/p>\n
Around the same time as the Medina blast, two other explosions struck near a mosque in the eastern city of Qatif on the Gulf coast.<\/p>\n
Witnesses said a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Shia mosque without causing any other injuries.<\/p>\n
They reported seeing body parts lying on the ground in the city’s business district.<\/p>\n
“Suicide bomber for sure. I can see the body” which was blasted to pieces, a resident told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n
Nasima al-Sada, another resident, said “one bomber blew himself up near the mosque”.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
There was no claim of responsibility for the attacks.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Monday morning, two security officers were injured as a suicide bomber blew himself up near the US consulate in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.<\/p>\n
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 interior ministry said.<\/p>\n
In January, at least four people were killed in a suicide attack on a Shia mosque in the eastern al-Ahsa region.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
ISIL, also known as ISIS, 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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