The Associated Press cites a release from the official Saudi Press Agency to report a second suicide bomb attack against a Shiite mosque in the Kingdom. At least four people were killed in the Friday attack.
“It said the bomber tried to enter the Mosque in Dammam, a Shiite dominated city, during Friday prayers and detonated his bomb in the parking lot after being stopped by security guards,” AP says of the Saudi Press Agency report. “It added that guards approached the car as it was parking and that the driver detonated the bomb. It was unclear if the bomber was among the four.”
ISIS claimed responsibility for a previous Shiite mosque bombing on May 22, a more devastating strike in which several dozen people were killed. Security analysts believe ISIS is interested in whipping up sectarian chaos between the Shiite minority in Saudi Arabia and the Sunni monarchy, a possibility the government has been taking pains to avert.
According to CNN, ISIS has also claimed responsibility for the second mosque bombing.
“In a blessed martyrdom operation, a Polytheistic monument was targeted, that (the Shiite community) established in Sunni areas to spread out their polytheism,” reads the statement from the terror state, which also identified the suicide bomber as Abu Jned al Zazrawi.
CNN also reports one of the victims in the new mosque bombing was a Kansas college student named Abduljaleel Alarbash, who had “returned home to get married” and then planned to “leave Saudi Arabia and head back to Wichita State University, where the electrical engineering major was an honor roll student.”
According to the family, Alarbash’s brother and cousin were also killed in the blast. All three were said to be volunteer security guards standing watch outside the mosque, on the lookout for just such a suicide bomb attack. According to Alarbash’s father, the bomber approached dressed as a woman, and detonated when the volunteer guards challenged him and uncovered his face.
Several fellow Wichita State students with family living in the Shiite quarter of Saudi Arabia described Abdujaleel Alarbash, along with his brother and cousin, as “heroes” who “saved hundreds of lives.”