Updated | ISIS claims deadly suicide attack on Saudi Arabia mosque
13 confirmed dead as suicide bomber attacks Saudi Arabian mosque
The mosque was used by a Swat team tasked with domestic security
TheIslamic State terror group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in a Saudi Arabian mosque, according to the Guardian.
The attack, left some 15 people dead, including 12 members of a Saudi special forces unit, and it is the latest in a spate of such attacks in the Gulf kingdom.
The paper reports that Isis said in a statement circulated on social media that it had targeted the men because they enabled the rule of Saudi Arabia’s monarchs and their western backers, because they allegedly tortured Isis sympathisers.
The group pledged further attacks in the Arab world, and boasted of its ability to pierce Saudi security measures.
🔥 At least 17 killed, 31 injured in a suspected suicide bombing in #Abha's mosque in #SaudiArabia
📷 pic.twitter.com/k1BEX68HGf
— Mete Sohtaoğlu (@metesohtaoglu) August 6, 2015The Saudi Arabian interior ministry announced that 13 people had been killed in a suicide attack on a mosque in the country's southwest region bordering with Yemen earlier today.
The attack targetted a mosque which belongs to the emergency forces in the city of Abha in Aseer province and at least nine others were injured, the ministry added.
Earlier, state media said 17 people were killed.
Saudi Television said initial information indicated that the blast occurred after a suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt.
The mosque was principally used by state security unit called the Special Emergency Force and 10 members are believed to have been killed, the TV channel reported.
The three other victims were workers in the compound.
They are believed to have been praying when the bomber struck from within their ranks.
Last month Saudi forces arrested over 400 suspected members of Isis who were alledged to be plotting attacks on police and mosques in the country, and an ISIS suicide bomber stuck a Shiite mosque in the eastern village of al-Ahsa in May and killed 22 people. A week later, another bomb attack outside another eastern Shiite mosque killed four.
