Saudi police foil mosque suicide bombing

Riyadh : Saudi police shot dead a would-be suicide bomber targeting a mosque in the Shia-dominated district of Qatif, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.

It was one of two attacks disrupted in the Kingdom’s Eastern Province since early August, when a Syrian and a Saudi were arrested on their way to bomb a restaurant, the ministry said.

Tuesday’s attempted attack happened around sunset prayers, the ministry said in a statement.

Security officers “managed to foil a terrorist operation targeting worshippers” at Mustafa Mosque in Qatif, the ministry said.

When suspicious officers questioned the man, he tried to detonate a bomb in a sports bag on his back, leading the police to open fire. The suspect died on the way to hospital.

Officers found four kilograms (8.8 pounds) of explosives in his bag. “A search revealed a Pakistani ID which is still being confirmed,” the ministry said.

The earlier case happened on August 5 when police stopped a suspicious vehicle in Dammam, adjacent to Qatif. Two suspects tried to flee but were detained.

“They were trained by Daesh elements abroad to target, in a suicide operation, Al-Saif Restaurant and Cafe in Tarot” neighbouring Qatif, the ministry said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (IS) group. 

Initial investigation identified the suspects as Abdullah al-Ghunaimi, 27, of Saudi Arabia, and Hussein Mohammed Ali, 24, of Syria.

“They were to implement the operation at 11pm the same day. Investigations so far reveal that two other Syrians are involved and have been arrested,” the statement added.

The ‘hallmark’ of IS 

On July 4, a Pakistani resident of the Kingdom blew himself up near the United States consulate in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, wounding two policemen. It was one of three separate attacks throughout the kingdom that day.

One occurred at a Shia mosque in Qatif, leaving the body parts of three people.